Max The Robot
by Rocket Wolf
Summary: Name, Max. Age, 8. Objective, Destroy the World. When secret is out that Max is a robot, will Ash and his friends be able to discover who is behind the heinous crime?
1. The Lake

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon but...Max is definitely a robot.**

Well, I don't really have to say much in this author note, except for the fact that Max is a robot. Think about it like this---he's an eight year old poke-dex, he knows almost everything about pokemon and he's always keeping his personal life a secret. If that doesn't convince you, let's hope this story will. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the freakin' truth. Also, I have to warn you about "complete and utter randomness and in some cases, nonsense" so just try to stay with me here and in turn, I will try to make reading an enjoyable experience for everyone. So...yea. XD

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It was an average day in Hoenn, much like the start of other Pokemon episodes. Ash is completely psyched because of the fact that they just _happened _to enter a town that has a gym that he will just _happen _to battle and just _happen _to win. May is just as excited, due to the fact that the town they had entered just _happened _to have contests in which May will also _happen _to enter and _happen _to win. Brock's mind is on nothing except for pretty girls that he knows he'll never get to date as well as Rachel Ray's cooking special he watched on TV a couple weeks ago.

Then of course, we've got Max. Identity known as May's brother---a short, nerdy black-haired boy that looks like the male/kid version of Velma from Scooby-Doo. His shirt that he wears is a pukish-green colour that go well with his glasses, which take up most of his face and and act as nothing more than a mere geek-magnet.

Like I said, all four of them were walking down the middle of some path to the next town. Everything was pretty much the same as always.

"I can't wait to win my next gym battle!" screamed Ash, pumping his fist. "Me and pikachu are gonna storm that gym leader 'til they never see the light of day again, isn't that right ol' buddy ol' pal?"

"Pi." said pikachu from Ash's shoulder, obviously not amused.

"Ash, can you please stop going on and on about your gym battle?" asked Brock. "I mean, you've already informed us one thousand times. It gets old after a while."

Ash scoffed. "I did _not _inform you one thousand times! I only informed you nine-hundred and eighty-two times, isn't that right, Pikachu?"

"Chu." he said again, slanting his beady eyes and trying his hardest to resist the urge to thunderbolt his trainer.

"Ash, you're an idiot." May replied, tossing her hair.

"Why, thank you." said Ash, doing a crappy-looking curtsy.

"Bigga bi.(Kill me now)." mumbled pikachu, rolling his eyes.

The conversation came to an abrupt halt when Brock suddenly stopped and teleported to Michigan. Just kidding! He just stopped and kinda...stood there.

"What are you doing?" asked May.

"Standing." Brock replied.

"Yea, I know _that_. But why, exactly, have you decided to stop and just stand there?" May asked again.

"Because I just found a nice place where we can have a picnic!" exclaimed the eyeless kid/man. (seriously, how old is this guy?)

"Picnic? HORRAY!" squealed Ash, clapping his hands in delight. "Let's eat!"

"What about that gym battle?" asked May with her eyebrows raised.

"Um...eh, that can wait. I'm starvin'!" The boy with the red hat skipped in joy and waited for Brock to get out all of his supplies. Brock dumped his ginourmous backpack onto the ground and it landed with a hard _THUMP_.

"Dang Brock, I've never thought to say it before but your backpack is really...big." exclaimed Ash in awe.

"And you wonder why I'm having back problems." he grumbled, stiffening his back, cracking it and sighing with satisfaction. He quickly got out his backpack and rummaged through the junk.

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" screamed Ash, unable to hold in the excitement. "What do you think we're gonna have? Maybe chicken pot pie or macoroni and cheese! Or pizza! Or spaghetti and meatballs!"

May rolled her eyes. "Guess again," she replied sarcastically. "It's what we have for lunch _every_day."

Ash scratched his chin. "Er...pancakes?"

"Ash, you freaking numskull!" she shouted. "I said lunch, not _breakfast_!"

"Oh. Whatever."

May just shook her head. "I give up."

By this time, Brock had dumped out most of the crap that was in his backpack. Boy, it was a lot of stuff. In fact, it's more stuff than I've ever seen in one entire sitting. It really was something.

"So...what are we having?" asked Ash again, either completely unaware of the fact that he had just asked it five seconds ago or was just too persistent in making his question be heard.

"Sandwiches and soup." Brock replied solemnly, getting out some cheese and mayonnaise, as well as a huge crock pot for his stew.

"Aw, I knew it." exclaimed May, snapping her fingers. "Knew it all along. Didn't you just _know _we were going to have soup and sandwiches? I mean, good golly. Isn't that right, Max?"

"Huh?" said Max, turning around. He seemed to be in some sort of trance.

"Max, what the flip are you doing?" asked May. "And what the heck has gotten into you? You haven't said a word all day!"

"Um...I..."

"Max, you're weird." May replied, rolling her eyes at the child (robot). She waited for Max to argue back with a smart-alek comment. But he didn't.

"Max, I said you're weird." she repeated. "Doesn't that bother you?"

Max didn't answer, as he had gotten back into his earlier daydreaming mode. May just placed her hand on her forehead and decided to ignore the boy. Besides, the _other _boy was acting more interesting.

"Hey, look Brock! I'm a Walrein!" Ash exclaimed, sticking two straws up his nose.

"I can't look at you, Ash. We're been through this discussion before." Brock replied stiffly. He paused before scolding. "And for heaven's sake, get those straws out of your nose! Do you want me to call your mother again?"

"Pshhhh. Fine." Ash said, removing a straw from his left nostril. May laughed a little, covering her mouth so no one would suspect her of cracking up at Ash's insane silly-ness.

Brock shook his head and resumed his cooking.

After taking the straws out of his nose, Ash got an idea and his eyes sparkled in delight. "Hey May, do you want to battle me?" he piped. _Oooooooof _course. What other idea would he have?

"Oh...right now?" she asked.

"**DUH**, right now!" Ash barked. "Now do you accept my challenge or not?!"

May scoffed slightly at Ash's rudeness. "Fine. But you know I'm gonna beat your butt in it." she replied confidently with a smirk.

"Nah-UH! Come on, Pikachu! Let's teach this girl some manners!" Ash shouted, gesturing towards the yellow mouse. Unfortunately, pikachu didn't feel like battling. He was sitting by the tree, relaxing in the summer heat and getting himself a tan.

Ash ran up to the tree. "Come on, pikachu! Let's go fight!"

"Pi." he refused, shaking his head as he placed two cucumbers over his eyes.

"PIKACHU!" Ash cried. "LISTEN TO ME OR _ELSE_!"

Pikachu flattened his ears and thunderbolted Ash, smoking him like a crisp Eggo waffle. Then, the mouse got back into position with his arms behind his head and continued to relax.

"OK...nevermind." Ash mumbled, burnt to a sint as he walked back up to May. "If Pikachu refuses to battle by my side, I shall use my other dominant weapon!" He took a pokeball from his belt. "Gooooo Grovyle!"

"Grovyle, grow!" the lizard exclaimed as it popped out of its prison---the pokeball.

"OK, grovyle. Listen." Ash whispered, crouching down in front of it. "Me and you are going to win against May and make her taste the true meaning of defeat. We will work together, side by side, giving it our all because of our unconditional love that we have between human and pokemon."

"Grow...grovyle." the lizard replied, slanting its eyes.

Ash sighed. "OK, _fine_." he said, rolling his eyes. "If you fight for me, I'll give you half my sandwich."

"Grow." it refused, shaking its head.

"OK, _two-thirds _of my sandwich." Ash corrected. "Now will you do this for me, already?"

Grovyle nodded and got into battle position. Two-thirds of a sandwich was a good enough deal to fight for Ash. Besides, it had already eaten Ash's dessert. That heist had made grovyle stronger anyway and made the deal an even better one knowing that it was going to steal his soup as well.

"Ha. I see you're using Grovyle." May smirked. "Well, you're going down Ash. Grass is no match for fire!" She took a pokeball from her belt as well. "Goooooo Combusken!"

"Busken!" shouted the chicken as it sprang out of its ball.

"Alright Combusken, let's get this party started!" May shouted, looking down at the pokemon. Sadly, combusken was not in the mood to battle either and it also slanted its eyes at May.

"What?" May replied coolly as it stared.

It continued gazing at her and its message came out quite clear. If grovyle was getting food to battle, why couldn't combusken? It seemed pretty unfair.

May sighed after recalling the message. "I _really_ don't want to do this, but---Combusken, you can eat my entire portion of soup if you battle for me right now."

Combusken leapt up in excitement. Leave it to food to get a pokemon up and ready for battle! I mean, what else could they possibly look forward to? Their trainers to gloat at the wins or cry at the losses while the pokemon act as if it was simply nothing? At least food---oh, good food---could keep their spirits lifted. Well, for the time being anyway.

Brock dropped some carrots into his pot as he watched Ash and May gear into battle. "Well, this should be interesting." he observed. He turned to Max. "What do you think, Max?"

"Uh...say what?"

"Nevermind." said Brock, sweatdropping. Boy, Max really was acting strange today. Brock just shrugged it off and suspected that the hunger had probably gotten to his brain. Once Max got something to eat, everything would be better. Wouldn't it?

"Prepare to be terminated." Ash said in a low voice with the use of one of those voice-changing devices. He sounded much like Darth Vader.

"Not before we terminate YOU, Ketchum!" she screamed back. She turned to her flaming chicken. "Alright Combusken, you know what to do. Start us off with a fire spin and KO that grovyle before he can lay a move onto you."

Combusken nodded and headed for grovyle, its body sparking up fire as it charged.

"Grovyle, look out!" said Ash in the voice-changer, except this time he sounded like a preppy girl because that's what it was switched onto.

Grovyle looked at his master, confused.

Ash turned off his voice-changer. "That means, dodge and use leaf blade." he replied.

Grovyle then also nodded and charged for combusken, its arm raised as it come close so it could strike with its cunning speed and accuracy.

"Dodge!" screamed May. Combusken dodged.

"You dodge, too!" screamed Ash. Grovyle dodged as well.

"Now, use double kick!"

"Dodge! Use rock smash!"

"Dodge! Use peck!"

"Dodge! Use absorb!"

The battle continued. Ash and May kept ordering their pokemon to do their attacks, but before the pokemon even got close enough to strike, their trainers screamed out "DODGE!" and the pokemon ended up right back where they started.

"OK, this is sorta lame." Brock remarked, slicing some cheese for the sandwiches as he watched from afar. He shrugged. "Ah, well. At least they've found something to occupy themselves with that won't get Ash in big trouble with his mom." He sweatdropped as he remembered the past experiences. Ash was always getting himself in trouble. A-L-W-A-Y-S. Brock had become so accustomed to calling Delia, his mother, that he had absentmindedly memorized the phone number. Besides, Delia was pretty cute, too. It didn't hurt to call every once in a while to check up on her.

Max, on the other hand, seemed...well, still strangely odd. He was watching the battle with unblinking eyes that glew a weird white and red colour. His arm twitched uncontrollably as a sensor was dying inside of it. Max was starting to run out of batteries and he couldn't think straight.

See, Max wasn't an ordinary robot. Though he was completely mechanical and man-made, he acquired the actual brain of a human being. He ran on powered batteries and only sleep could recharge them. Max hadn't been getting a lot of sleep in the last couple of days and the signs were starting to show. His eyes continued to blink white and red to warn him of the low battery problem. Unfortunately, it was a tad late, and his brain was already beginning to shut down. He didn't know where he was, what he was doing...ANYTHING!

Slowly, Max got up and began walking around like a moron, his legs making weird noises as they shuffled back and forth.

Brock saw (or heard or sniffed) Max getting up and his brow raised in confusion. Now _this _was a little beyond strange. Brock was getting worried now.

"Max, are you sure you're feeling all right?" he asked, his hand slowly slipping into his pocket to retrieve his cellphone. "I can always call Norman and he can come here and pick you up if you're ill."

Max's head turned in almost a complete angle before facing Brock. "Name---Max. Age---8. Objective---Destroy the World!" he exclaimed in a weird, robotic voice that scared Brock. No longer was Brock watching the pointless battle. His entire attention was now on Max.

Brock got up and slowly grabbed Max's arm. "Max, come with me. Let's get you some rest. I'll bring you your soup and check your temperature." Brock's mind raced as he thought about the medical kit and what he should do to calm down the rampaging child.

Max pulled his arm away and looked up at Brock with a menacing glare. "No! No touch! I, Max, shall go dominate the world and get rid of all you pathetic humans! Robots shall rule the world! World Domination! World Domination! World Domination!" The crazed robot began running around like a psycho lunatic, ripping grass out of the ground and tearing leaves off the trees.

Brock's heart rate quickened. Oh no, what was Max doing?!

Ash and May were still battling, unaware of the danger that was going on around them.

"Grovyle, quick attack!"

"Dodge! Combusken, ember!"

"Dodge!"

The pokemon stopped firing attacks and dodging when their senses began to tingle for they felt something was not right. Max's voice sounded as he appeared next to both battlers and their pokemon.

"Max, do you mind? We're in the middle of a battle, here." May said sacrastically, rolling her eyes.

"DESTORY THE WORLD! DOMINTE! DESTROY!" screamed the child and he began grabbing dirt and flinging it into Ash and May's faces.

Both coughed and wiped their sore eyes.

"MAX! What was that for!" shouted May, mad at her "brother".

"Name---Max. Age---8. Objective---Destroy the World! WORLD DOMINATION! WORLD DOMINATION!" The robot threw a stick at grovyle and the lizard reacted by starting to fire a leaf blade at Max.

"No, Grovyle! Stop! Don't hurt Max!" Ash cried, grabbing hold of his grass lizard. Grovyle looked up at him, wishing to gain his trainer's trust. Max was dangerous, and neither Ash nor May seemed to understand. Combusken was just as desperate, holding in its ember attack because it knew it was against May's will to do so.

"Brock, what's going on?!" asked Ash in confusion and horror as the eyeless dood ran up to him, panting with all he had got.

"Max is---he's going on a rampage!" said Brock in between breaths. "I don't know what's wrong! I think he's sick or something but we've got to stop him! NOW!"

Suddenly, a thunderbolt came out of nowhere and struck Max. The boy fell to the ground and everything was silent. Pikachu stood behind the fallen robot, sparks still flying in his cheeks as he readied his next attack.

Ash gasped, his eyes wide with terror. "PIKACHU!" he screamed. "HOW COULD YOU! MAX IS JUST SICK AND YOU'RE TREATING HIM LIKE HE'S A MEMBER OF TEAM ROCKET OR SOMETHING! STOPPIT PIKACHU! STOP!"

Pikachu growled and stopped the sparks in his cheeks. Ash's booming voice hurt pikachu's sensitive ears and he knew the screaming would continue if he disobeyed so he stopped and, instead, stared at Max with a glimmer of concern.

Everything was quiet as the trio and their pokemon gazed down at the fallen boy. Even the chattering of the wild pidgeys and spearows in the trees ceased at the event.

Finally, May cut the silence. "Well, I guess that calmed him down." she said with a nervous laugh.

All of a sudden, Max's leg began to twitch.

Ash, May and Brock stood back. Grovyle, combusken and pikachu stepped in front of their trainers, ready to attack if they had to.

Max's leg twitched again, this time faster. His arms pushed himself up on the ground and he shook on weak legs. Then, with a terrible speed, Max's head snapped up and his eyes turned a very very VERY dark red. His nose flared and his teeth began to grind. May gasped as a chainsaw erupted from his left arm and Max began to head towards them.

Grovyle fired bullet seeds that bounced off the surface of Max's steel body. Combusken and pikachu also started shooting fire and electricity down at him, but Max bounced those back as well and he gave a menacing smile before shooting a missile out from underneath his shirt and at the unsuspecting pokemon. All three of them yelped as they were tossed onto the ground.

"Grovyle! Pikachu!" screamed Ash.

"Combusken!" screamed May.

Max continued smiling evilly at the fainted pokemon on the ground then switched his focus back onto the three frightened humans. Even Brock was scared---that's when everybody knew how serious the situation was.

Brock's hand began to reach for his cellphone when he felt a paralyzing shock go up his arm. He grabbed it in pain as the cellphone floated out of his pocket as if Max were controlling it with psychic energy. He wasn't---he was actually pulling the technology with his mind through his robotic powers, crushing it into a thousand pieces and letting them fall onto the ground.

Ash began breathing heavily. The three of them backed up slowly as Max approached them. Another chainsaw extended from his right arm as well as his left.

The trio continued to step back when all of a sudden, Ash felt his foot touch something wet. He looked back, only to discover a lake behind them!

"Oh no." he breathed, a lump forming in his throat. Max was coming closer. Closer. CLOSER. Death, doom and despair was closing in.

"Max, please stop." May whimpered. "I'm sorry if I yelled at you before! I...I didn't _mean_ it..."

Max stopped and everyone thought that he had finally got his senses back. Unfortunately, it was not the case. Instead, his face pulled into an even bigger---even eviller---smile. A dozen more chainsaws come out from Max's body and he walked towards them even faster.

Brock reached in his pocket again, trying to call out mudkip and lombre to use a water gun on Max but that was controlled by technology as well. He would have to do this the hard way...

"Ash! May!" shouted Brock above the whirring noises of death as it approached its victims.

"WHAT?!" both cried in unison.

"Move out of the way when I give the signal!" he blurted out.

Ash and May nodded, too scared to reason.

Max continued to approach, getting so close that Ash and May were getting nervous. They couldn't turn back into the lake but they could certainly run out from the sides. Instead, however, they stayed put and followed Brock's orders as the chainsaws came even closer.

"That's it...just a little closer..." Brock muttered to himself as the robot came within inches of their range. 3...2...1...

"OK, MOVE!" he shouted, pushing both Ash and May out of the way right in the knicker of time as the robot dived into the air and plunged into the lake.

Again, it was silent. The three pokemon got up weakly and walked up to their trainers. All of them---humans and pokemon alike---stared into the bubbling surface. Was Max gone? Was it safe?

In a matter of only a twenty seconds or less, the lake blew up like it was exposed to dynamite. Pieces of metal and steel flew into the atmosphere...the lithosphere...the stratosphere...the ionosphere. It was so deathly amazing a sight that if Brock had eyes, they would have popped right out of their sockets. (which is good that he didn't---that would've been quite unfortunate for our spikey-haired friend)

But then, just like that, it was over. The explosion was huge but very short. Everyone opened their eyes and looked around them.

Destroyed.

Everything within a radius of thirty inches---completely devastated. Scraps of old metal and steel polluted the small area. The explosion damaged the trees and all plant life. However, no plant _pokemon_ were affected. That was good.

"Well...I'm at a loss for words." Brock finally exclaimed, his hair black and crispy as well as the two children that also stood next to him.

"So am I..." said Ash, his heart racing from the little adventure. "It was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my whole entire life! It was so freakin' sweet, dude!" He pumped his fist.

"Ash...I don't think you should be cheering..." May gulped.

"Why?" asked Ash, clueless as always. He cocked his head to the side.

"Bigga..." said pikachu, pointing behind Ash with his tiny finger.

Ash turned around. Three Officer Jennys stood in front of them. "What seems to be the problem, here?" one of them, the one in front asked.

Brock's slits turned into hearts. "Problem? THERE'S NO PROBLEM!" he said, running up at the speed of sound and grabbing her hands with his. "Did I mention how perfectly dreamy your eyes are, Jenny? So...so perfect! Beyond words!"

Since Max wasn't there, May had to do the honor (A/N: pulling Brock away by his ear) the ol' fashioned way as the three officers questioned Ash.

"So...can you explain what just caused that explosion?" the one in front asked. One of the others got out a notepad and got ready to scribble down Ash's answers.

"Um...well...I dunno." he replied, scratching his chin. "Me and May were just battling when all of a sudden, Max started going bazooka! He chased us with chainsaws until Brock got an idea and Max jumped in the lake. Then KABOOOOOOM! Max esploded!" His eyes were on fire even after he finished his vague explanation.

All officers blinked at him.

"Ok_aaaaaaaaaay_..." the one in front said with a sweatdrop. "Let's start from the beginning. Why was your friend going crazy and where in the world did he manage to get chainsaws?"

"Well, I have no idea why he was going crazy. It was kind of weird. I mean, he looked very angry---maybe it was because May was mean to him earlier today." Ash scratched his head as he recalled the moment. "I don't know where he got the chainsaws, either, but they were pretty cool."

"Well, it's illegal to use chainsaws in a violent act here in this town." the one in front said as one in the back wrote down what Ash was saying. "Now, can you explain to us how a boy jumping into a lake could have caused that big explosion?"

Ash shrugged. "I think he was a robot, or something. Our pokemon's attacks weren't working on him, either. It was weird."

"Hm." said Officer Jenny. All three of them spoke nothing else as they pondered at what the boy had told him. One of the Officer Jennys, the one that didn't do anything yet, walked up to the water and bagged some of the steel and metal for evidence. Officer Jennys and Officer Joes (the male version of Jenny with shorter hair) came in by the millions and set up the crime scene.

Brock and May returned when Ash was done with his description.

"So?" asked Brock. "What's going to happen, now?"

The Officer Jenny in front sighed. "Well, I'm afraid there's no other way we can settle this. It is illegal to use any explosives near the lake and you have broken that rule. I am afraid you three are going to have to come with me---to court."

**Next Chapter Preview:**

"_So..." said the jury. "What do you have to say in your defense?"_

"_It wasn't us!" screamed Ash. "Max was the one who decided to explode! It was a life-death situation! Right, Brock?"_

"_Yes." Brock said with a nod. "It was very sudden and crazy...I really don't think I can put it into words..."_

_  
"Yea! We weren't a part of this at all!" cried May. _

_  
"Then would you kindly demonstrate to us the meanings of Exhibit A and Exhibit B?" asked the jury as a member of the court held up the two respective baggies. One seemed to contain Max's nose while the other had a piece of a chainsaw._

"_Um..." Ash said, rubbing his chin. "We're...innocent?"_

_Brock slapped his forehead. Oh, they were in soooooo much trouble, now..._


	2. To Court We Go!

**Disclaimer: Still do not own Pokemon...**

I apologise, but I really don't know that much about courthouses and how they work...so please, don't sue. I don't have a lawyer. DX

OK, in the last chapter, Max (who was a robot) jumped into a lake and exploded. One of the Officer Jennys in charge had just informed Ash, Brock and May that they had to come to court for breaking the law---well, actually, two laws---exploding the lake and using chainsaws.

"But it's not our fault, Officer! I swear!" cried Ash, clinging to her legs and sobbing. Never in his life had he once thought he would have to deal with going to court. Now, if that wasn't bad enough, he was going to have to go to jail, too!

_I will run away, _thought Ash. _I must get out of here. I will be hunted down for the rest of my life. I am a Wanted Man! What will mum think?!_

The officer sweatdropped as she tried to shake the boy off her leg, but to no avail. "Um, kid? Leggo, would'ya?"

"But I don't wanna go to jail! I don't wanna go to jail! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" He grasped her ankles even tighter.

"Ash, calm down. We aren't going to jail." Brock said, slapping his forehead. "We're just going to court."

Ash thought for a moment. "I DON'T WANNA GO TO COURT!" he sobbed. Wow, he must have looked pretty pathetic. But that did not now matter to him. There was only one thing on his mind---escape!

Unfortunately, as Ash tried to run away, Brock caught hold of his collar and nearly choked the boy to death. "Ash, don't make this more difficult than it has to be." he mumbled.

"But Brock...I don't wanna go." he whispered, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I CAN'T!"

"We have to." May exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "If you escape, you're only going to make things worse for yourself. Besides, this will be interesting. Think of it like an adventure."

"An...an adventure?" asked Ash, wiping some snot away with his shirt sleeve.

"Yea, an adventure. How does that sound, Ash?" asked Brock.

"OK, I guess I'll go." he announced, giving in to the temptation. "But that means Brock has to buy me the PinkiePie My Little Pony action figure for my collection, give me twenty-one piggy back rides and tell me why he has no eyes."

_  
_"Whatever. Deal." agreed Brock.

"Yea, Brock. Why _don't _you have eyes?" asked May.

"Mrreh, we'll talk about it later." said Brock, quickly to change the subject. "Right now we have to go to court."

"That's right, and you already wasted fifteen minutes of our day with your childish antics." said one of the Officer Joes. He was quite chubby and was eating a powdered doughnut. He looked quite grumpy and a little scary.

"Alright, um...yea. Let's go." said Brock.

So the three children followed the officials to court. Nobody could talk back against any of the Jennys or Joes, especially the powdered-doughnut guy. The Officer Joe was holding the cutest Officer Jenny's hand---making Brock pretty dang jealous.

"Well, we're here." exclaimed the Jenny as they reached the courthouse.

Ash gulped. Well, this was it. His life was over. His dream of becoming a Pokemon Master...gone in the blink of an eye. His future career as a Walmart employee...crushed like hard granite in a bulldozer's claw. His thoughts, his dreams, his life...over.

Brock, Ash and May got seated in the front of the room. Villagers and other such people sat in the audience, either to defend or...to not defend. Everyone was talking at once about the ordeal. An explosion as large as this happened solemnly in the small town and it seemed to be a pretty big deal among the individuals.

"Order! Order in the Court!" yelled the jury. Everyone went silent.

"OK Case number 2857...illegal explosion device in Lake Gowawa(A/N---made-up place XD)..." said the jury, looking at a long list of crimes. "Also, Case number 1836, the use of chainsaws in an urban environment."

"**I OBJECT**!" shouted Ash at the tops of his lungs. Everyone in the Court looked at him weirdly before Ash blushed, embarrassed and sat back down in his seat.

"Bigga..." mumbled pikachu, slapping his forehead. Right now, he should be outside getting a nice tan...not wasting his day in a stupid courthouse.

"Erm...alright then..." said the jury, getting back on track. He cleared his throat. "So, what does anybody have to say about this?"

An Officer Jenny from the opposite side of the room stood up. "I would like to state that these three children were found near the crime scene after the explosion and claimed that their friend exploded in the lake. It seems that they have been using some kind of robot for the dynamic explosion."

"What? Their friend? Exploded?" asked the jury, scratching his head as if he couldn't believe what he just heard. "Very well. Any evidence of this?"

"Yes." said the officer and she held up two baggies with so-called evidence inside. One was labeled _Exhibit A_ and the other read _Exhibit B_. All members of the courthouse were looking curiously at the baggies and wondering what was inside.

The jury turned to the children sitting at the other side. All three of them were shifting uncomfortably and appeared to be very anxious.

"So..." said the jury. "What do you have to say in your defense?"

"It wasn't us!" screamed Ash. "Max was the one who decided to explode! It was a life-death situation! Right, Brock?"

"Yes." Brock said with a nod. "It was very sudden and crazy...I really don't think I can put it into words..."

"Yea! We weren't a part of this at all!" cried May.

"Then would you kindly demonstrate to us the meanings of Exhibit A and Exhibit B?" asked the jury as a member of the court held up the two respective baggies. One seemed to contain Max's nose while the other had a piece of a chainsaw.

"Um..." Ash said, rubbing his chin. "We're...innocent?"

Brock slapped his forehead. Oh, they were in soooooo much trouble, now...

Everyone in the courthouse started shouting at once again and the jury had to bang his mallet thingie on the table to get their attention. "ORDER! Order in the court!" he screamed. Everything was quiet, again.

"OK, would you kindly prove to us why you are innocent?" asked the jury. He looked at Ash sternly. "By the way...what's your name, kid?"

"Ketchum..." he whispered softly.

"OK, Mr. Ketchup. Tell us why you were innocent." the jury ordered.

"It's KETCHUM---not Ketchup!" Ash cried, desperate to be heard over the sudden talking in the court.

"ORDER! ORDER IN THE FRIGGIN' COURT!" screamed the jury. Everyone was once again, silent.

"So...any evidence?" asked the jury, tapping his fingers on the desk.

"My name isn't Ketchup." Ash mumbled.

Pikachu's ears perked at the sound of his favourite word being spoken on his master's lips. Ah...ketchup. The delicious tomatoey sensation...the beautiful divine texture...the unmistakable plastic container. Pikachu licked his lips, dreaming of the wonderful condiment.

"Yea, fine. Mr. Mustard. Mr. Relish. I don't care what the heck your name is, just give us the facts!" shouted the jury.

Ash was silent. "Um...well..." He looked hopefully towards Brock.

Brock glanced off (somehow) towards Ash and gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, I don't know." he admitted. "I don't know anything about this. I was just cooking soup---completely innocent. Besides that, I just...don't know."

Ash's eyes widened. Brock didn't KNOW?! He thought Brock knew everything! Ash had looked up to Brock for so many years, thinking he was the smartest, coolest guy he'd ever met on the whole darn planet. And now, here they were, in a courthouse. Brock had just admitted something that Ash thought his ears would never hear. Well...guess he was wrong all along.

"Well, if you have no evidence or defense in your favour, I'm afraid there's really nothing we can do." said the jury, putting down his large mallet thing-a-ma-bobby. "The act you have done is illegal, and you have three choices. Number One...pay up the fines for the damage. That would be 10,000 dollars."

Everyone had a shock of terror written across their faces. Ash put his hand to his heart in horror. He only got five dollars of allowance a week! He would have to save up for _years_ to get that much money!

"Choice number two..." the jury continued. "Serve your time of three years in prison."

Everyone got even more scared. Ash was so terrified he could have almost had a heart-attack. THREE YEARS?! He would be old, then! Really old!

"And last but not last, good ol' choice number three..." said the jury. "Community service."

Ash braced himself. "What's community service?" he asked.

"Ash, you dummy!" shouted May. "You don't know what community service is?! HOW STUPID IS THAT?!" She turned to Brock. "What's community service?" she whispered. Brock sweatdropped.

"Community service," said the jury. "Is what you do to help out your environment and earn money to pay up for the damages. Things like picking up trash, volunteering...and in this case---rebuilding Lake Gowawa."

Ash blushed stupidly. "OK...we'll do the community service." he said rather hastily.

The jury smiled. "I thought you'd say that. Now...just for the sake of it all...does anyone here, other than these three individuals," he gestured towards Ash, Brock and May. "Have anything to say in defense before we wrap up this case?"

Everybody was silent.

"Anybody? This is your time---speak up now."

Everybody was still silent.

"OK then, I now declare Case number 2857---"

"_**I OBJEEEEEEEEECT!**_" screamed a voice before the jury could land his mallet. Everybody looked to the back of the room to where the voice came from. A teenage, orange-haired girl with a togepi in her arms was standing in the doorway, panting hard and out of breath.

Ash's eyes widened again. "Misty?" he squeaked. Wow, could this day get any weirder?

Misty walked up to the front of the room. "Of course it's me, Ketchum!" she shouted. "I just almost freakin' broke my legs off trying to get here!"

Ash arched his eyebrow. "How did you know?" he asked.

"Hey, you should be happy I'm here." she replied. "You're lucky I was in the area or I would have never figured this out. I was coming to visit you in Hoenn when I heard about an explosion caused by three children...and one of them was a kid with messy black hair and an idiotic personality."

"HEY, WHO SAYS I HAVE AN IDIOTIC PERSONALITY?!" Ash cried.

Everyone started shouting again and the jury sighed, putting his hand to his head. "Boy, what I wouldn't do for an Asprin..." he mumbled before banging his mallet once again. "**ORDER IN THE COURT, YOU FREAKIN' IMBESILES**!"

"Yea Mist, and what about the gym?" asked Ash, unaware of the screaming jury.

"Oh, I left it to my sister, Daisy. She says she's just gonna give 'em all badges." Misty shrugged. "But don't worry---they're fake. I made them out of my old candy wrapper collection."

"O.o You have a candy wrapper collection?" asked Ash, dumbfounded.

"Of course I do! Everybody has a collection!"

"Oh yea...like My Little Pony." gaped Ash, remembering. "Brock says he's gonna buy me the ultra special edition of Pinkie Pie and Sparkle Works!"

"Hey, Sparkle Works was never in the deal!" Brock countered.

Ash rolled his eyes. "What.Ev." he declared.

"Stop changing the subject, for heaven's sake---We're in a courthouse!" the jury reminded them. He looked at Misty. "Now..." he said. "What do you have to say in their defense?"

"Oh yeh...that." Misty said, waving her hand. "I was going to say that I have a hunch of who did this. You say the explosion was caused by a robot, huh?"

The jury nodded slowly.

"What kind of robot?" she asked.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, we don't know!" yelled the jury. "But according to the evidence, yes, it was a robot. And it's form seemed to resemble one of a human child, according to pieces of rotting metal---and stories---that we've gotten on this case."

"Hmmm...show me the baggies." Misty ordered, holding out her hands with wiggling fingers. The Officer Jenny with the bags gave them to Misty and she stared at them and muttered softly to herself before giving them back.

"Yup. I know exactly who did this." she announced.

Everyone looked at her.

"Who?" asked Ash.

"Gawsh, Ash, isn't it obvious?!" she shouted. "They've followed you for years and years and you have no idea who the heck I'm talking about?!"

Ash shook his head.

"Prepare for trouble...make it double...doesn't it ring a bell?" asked Misty.

May scratched her chin. "Yea, I've think I've heard that somewhere before." she replied, also playing dumb.

"Oh yea! So have I!" said Ash, his eyes sparkling as he had just come to his mind. "It was in that one educational program I watched on PBS once!"

Misty anime-fell onto the ground.

"Gee Misty, we were just joking." Ash laughed, rolling his eyes. "You're talking about Team Rocket, right?"

"No, duh." grumbled Brock.

"Team Rocket?" asked the jury. "Aren't they that criminal organization in Kanto? We don't get trouble from those goons here---most of the dirty work in Hoenn is usually the work of either Team Aqua or Magma."

"No...it's not the actual organization, per say." Brock explained. "It's just three people that stalk us everywhere we go and try to steal Ash's pikachu. They make lots of weird mechas and things, so I'm not surprised we've decided to bring them up."

The jury looked on, confused. "You mean, they just stalk you? And you're OK with that?"

"Yea, they're really weak and I can usually kill 'em with pikachu's thunderbolt." beamed Ash. "I actually enjoy it, if you want to know the truth. It gives my pokemon free experience points. Though sometimes it can become quite a bore, blasting 'em off time after time...it gets old, y'know?"

The jury looked at Satoshi weirdly. "So, you think these three were the ones who were behind this?" he asked. "Are they in the courthouse right now?"

Ash and company looked back at the people in the stands. And before you ask, no, Team Rocket weren't in disguises either. If they were, Ash and friends would have never known anyway because they're too stupid to realise it when they see it.

"Well...no." Ash admitted.

"What do they look like?" asked the jury and he gestured to that one court member with the pad of paper (don't know what they're called) and the man got ready with his pencil.

"Uhhh...well, they look like freaks." Ash said.

The jury again, scratched his head. "Could you give us a little more detail?" he asked.

"Well," he started. "They wear these goofy white shirts with red 'R's on 'em, and they're both ripped at the bottom. They've always had the rips in them and they never fixed it. I don't think they know how to sew. But they're pretty good at cross-stitching."

"O.o Uhh...alright. Go on."

"Oh yea, and one of them is this woman who has really long, curly hair that's fun to pull on! And the other one is a man with blue hair that's really shiny and it goes through his eye. And then they have a demented talking cat."

"Waitwaitwait...hold on a second." said the jury. "A talking cat?"

"Yea. Well, actually, he's a meowth. But I like to call him a cat cuz it makes him mad. And he looks funny when he's mad."

"Errr...OK. And what about this _hair going through his eye _thing?"

"Oh, THAT?" asked Ash. "I don't know. His hair just goes through his eye and the funny thing is, he's completely oblivious to it...I bet it hurts though. But I think it was just the way he was drawn."

"Um...interesting. And have you ever pulled on this woman's hair?"

"Actually, no, I haven't." Ash admitted. "But it tempts me---_oh yes_. It hangs down like a curly lever of doom, coaxing me to pull on it...taunting me to grab it with my fists...PURE TORTURE, I TELL YA!"

The jury sweatdropped. "OK...do you know where they are?"

Ash shrugged. "No idea. But they always seem to find us before we find them. They recite this stupid motto of theirs and then I command my pikachu to use thunderbolt and then pikachu uses thunderbolt and gets experience and then Team Rocket's like BOOM and they go bye-bye."

Misty, Brock and May all blinked.

"Uhhh...what are their names?" asked the jury.

"Jessie, James and Meowth. Jessie is the one with hair going through the eye, James is the cat thingie and Meowth is the one with the hair that's fun to pull on! No wait...I think I got it switched around. Maybe Meowth was the one with the hair in the eye and James was---no, that's not right..."

"OK, Mr. Ketchum, we get your point. You can shut up now." said the jury, rolling his eyes.

Ash wasn't listening and continued to talk. "And Jessie is the one with the green bunny slippers and James is the one with a purple toothbrush and Meowth is the one with a rainbow pillow...and Giovanni is my dad!"

"Wait...what? Who's Giovanni?" asked the jury, scratching his head.

"Giovanni is my dad!" exclaimed Ash.

"Yeh, I know, you already said that. Is he a part of this, too?" asked the jury.

"Um...I don't know." he replied. "But probably not. All he likes to do is boring boss stuff like sit around lazily in his chair, eating Lays Potato Chips and watching Soap Operas."

"O.o Um...so...ah, just forget it." said the jury, slapping his forehead.

"Giovanni is your dad?" asked Misty.

"Of course he is, Mist." Ash laughed. "Mom talks about him all the time, and in kindergarten I used to go with him to work on _Take Your Kid to Work Day_. His job is really boring. All he does is watch Soap Operas and play Minesweeper on his computer."

"OK...?" said the jury, but Ash continued.

"Yea, and his office stinks like rotten cheese. Whenever he eats Quinzos, he gets really bad gas. I've tried giving him Beano, but he refuses to admit his problem, though I---"

"**OK, OK, OK**!" shouted the jury, putting up his hands to silence Ash. "That is WAY more than I needed to know. In fact, I don't really have to know any of this at all. Why are we even talking about your dad in the first place?"

"Cuz he smells like stinky ham."

The jury face-faulted into the ground, mallet and all.

Brock sweatdropped. "Well, Ash has officially done it, again. You never really know when to quit talking, do you?"

"I don't know...but you should meet my dad, Brock. You two have a lot in common---except for the fact that he actually has eyes." Ash remarked.

"Yea, Brock! Tell us why you don't have eyes!" piped May.

"I said I'd talk about it later." Brock mumbled. He quickly changed the subject again. "Instead of sitting around here and yapping, let's just finish up this stupid case." He walked up to the jury and helped him up off the ground.

"Oh, thank you, lad." he grumbled upon getting up. He fixed his glasses up on his nose. "OK, so where were we again?"

Everyone in the room stared at the jury.

"Oh yes!" he exclaimed. "Case number 2857." He staggered back to his seat and sat, pounding his mallet back down on the desk to get everyone's attention, even though he pretty much already had it.

"So, does this mean we have to community service, now?" asked Ash. "I really don't want to do community service. I don't like my community."

"Yea, we've noticed, apparently." mumbled the jury. "Anyway, I'll make you kids a deal. Since you claim to be innocent, I'd like you to prove it to me. If you can bring the culprits here to the courthouse in a time period of 24 hours, we'll continue with the case. If not, you'll be llabled off as guilty and will be sentenced to five months of community service."

Ash's eyes widened. "FIVE MONTHS?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, five months. There's a lot of damage done to Lake Gowawa and I'm afraid it's the least I can do. Trust me, I'm supposed to be giving you seven months but...you're only kids, so I'm leaving you off with a small warning. HOWEVER---" he banged his mallet. "You still have 24 hours to prove us wrong and bring us the criminals. But for right now...case closed." He wiped his forehead. "Thank the Lord."

Everyone muttered as they scattered out of the room.

"Cool, so I guess we might not have to do community service after all---or go to jail! Or anything!" Ash squealed joyfully as he skipped outside to the open (destroyed) meadow.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet." Brock mumbled. "We've still got to bring Team Rocket to the courthouse in the course of 24 hours---not to mention, I'd like to find out what happened to the real Max..."

"Don't be silly Brock---Max was a robot! The whole time!" laughed Ash. "There is no real one!"

Misty banged Ash's head with a mallet. "There has to be some kind of real one, for heaven's sake! A kid who's lived with May all her life?! I'm telling you, the robot was just a mere copy of the real thing."

"But where IS the real thing?" asked Ash.

"For crying out the window, WE DON'T KNOW!" countered Misty back.

"Guys! Both of you, calm down!" ordered Brock. "Stop arguing like a couple already and help me figure out a plan!"

"WE AREN'T A COUPLE!" both screamed together in sync. They looked at each other and blushed.

"Uhh...hehe, YEA." Ash giggled stupidly. "Besides," he got back to his normal serious tone. (if he has one. XD) "Getting Team Rocket to court should be a piece of cake. They follow us wherever we go. All we have to do is use pikachu as bait and TADA! Works like a charm, I tell ya."

"You're right," Brock grumbled again, feeling very dumb. "But what if they steal your pikachu, Ash?"

"No big deal." he replied casually. "If they ever succeed in stealing it, they'll give it to Dad. And I know all of Dad's passwords so I could break into his room easily. Seriously, Brock. No big deal."

Pikachu crossed his arms. Ha? No big deal. Acting as bait for a stupid trap to bring Team Rocket to court was the stupidest idea he had ever heard of and was not open to it at all. "Pi." he refused.

"Aw, come on, pikachu! I'll buy you five two-liter bottles of ketchup!" Ash tempted. Pikachu sighed as the offer proved too much for him to refuse any longer.

"Peeeeeka.(fiiiiiiiine...)" he mumbled, nodding his head.

"Alright! HOW FUN! THANX SO MUCH, PIKACHU!" screamed Ash, picking up the mouse and squeezing the life out of him. The creature gasped and struggled for breath before being tossed back onto the ground in an embarrassing way. Pikachu got up, brushed the dirt off his fur and pretended it never happened.

"Well, guess we should probably start, now." May said.

"Yea, but first---why don't you have any eyes, Brock?" asked Ash, for the third time in the single day.

"May's right, let's go look for Team Rocket!" Brock replied quickly, not even stopping to answer Ash's question in between. He grabbed Ash's arm. "Come on, guys! Let's go! Let's go!"

"But you didn't answer my question! TELL ME!" pleaded Ash, being dragged.

Misty, May and Pikachu sweatdropped. This was going to be one heck of a day...

**Next Chapter Preview:**

"_So what are YOU twerps doing here?" asked Jessie._

"_Don't play dumb. You know what you did!" cried Ash, shaking his fist. "You turned Max into a deadly robot with chainsaws that jumped into the lake and destroyed half the city and now we're all gonna diiiiiiiiie!"_

_All Ash received was three blank stares._

"_What's it trying to say?" asked James, studying the boy._

_Meowth laughed. "He thinks that we turned the geeky twerp into a robot!"_

"_He does, does he?" asked Jessie. "That's...that's...that's HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHA! What kind of idiots does he think we are?"_

_The villians all fell onto the ground, roaring with laughter and kicking their legs in the air._

_The four children and Pikachu stared at them, sweatdropping. _

_Brock slapped his forehead once more. "Ohhhhh...I think I need to lie down." he announced. _


	3. Everything Becomes Whacked Up

**Disclaimer: Today is April 4th...you know what THAT means...**

Well, yeah, it means I finally updated this story for the few people who are actually reading it. I am very proud of this accomplishment, though I think I should give a vague warning: sanity ends after this paragraph so brace yourselves. XD (no, I'm serious, nothing makes sense...)

Just to refresh your memory--Ash, Brock, May, Misty and Pikachu were finally free from court (well...sorta) and they were walking outside in the destroyed area as they searched for Team Rocket, so they could bring them back to court and so the whole "Max the Robot" thing would be off their chests for good. Hopefully...

"Hey, Team Rocket!" screamed Ash. "Look at me! I've got a pikachu, ripe and fresh off the market! COME 'N GET IT!"

Everything was silent.

"I SAID, COME ON! GET YOUR PIKACHUZ HERE! FREE, WITH PAID ORDER AND SHIPPINGZ AND HANDLINGZ! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! ALL READY TO BE STOLEN! CAN'T YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Obviously not, if they're not answering you." Misty rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Ash. You've got issues."

"Good issues or bad issues?" asked Ash.

"I think it's best if we don't find out." laughed May.

"No, really, guys." said Brock, getting back on subject. "I think it's best if we just play it out normal and pretend nothing whacked-up is going on. That way, they'll just come like they always do--the easy way."

Ash scratched his chin. "Good point...but I think I have a better plan." He eyed Pikachu with a large, scary smile and Pikachu stared back at him suspiciously. _Oh no...this was NOT going to be good..._

_..._

Five minutes later, the electric mouse found himself tied with rope to a large oak tree, squirming and screaming to get free. _How do I get myself into these things?, _he thought hopelessly, giving up the struggle as his arms were getting tired.

"Uhhhhh...nice plan, Ash." said Misty sarcastically. "Are we searching for Team Rocket or watching Pikachu get crucified on a tree?"

Ash smiled. "Both."

Pikachu was getting fed up with Ash and thunderbolted him from the tree in annoyance. Ash stepped up, fried like a slab of bacon, bewildered of the fact that he thought the rope was electric-proof the whole time and yet he still got shocked. Brock, May and Misty all laughed at him. This made Ash...um...cry. He tilted his hat down so no one would detect the tears. However, it was an old tactic and it didn't succeed in fooling anybody.

"Ash, stop crying." Brock mumbled, slapping his forehead. "Be a big boy."

"I **am **a big boy!" he proclaimed against Brock, crystal-like tears stinging his eyes. He hadn't even noticed that his outburst just revealed the fact that he was crying. Not like Misty and May didn't know about it in the first place...

And then Pikachu of course, had a new problem of his own. The electric mouse sniffed the air and sighed. He could smell Team Rocket only inches away, probably attracted by the sound of a crying twerp, most likely readying themselves to jump out and recite their infamous motto. And now...oh, perfect. He was tied to a tree. No escape. Ash was too much of a baby to even notice Pikachu was in danger. Could this day possibly get any better?

All of a sudden, a smoke ball went off. _Oh, wonderful, _thought Pikachu as he hung limply from the tree.

Ash, Brock, May and Misty all fell to the ground in absolute shock, petrified. They began coughing like mad and gasping for air. Slowly, the smoke vanished away and they managed to catch their footing and their breath.

"HOLY FRIG!" shouted Ash. "WHO COULD'VE DONE THIS?!" He started crying again, shielding his face into his arm in another bad attempt to hide his emotions. Didn't work.

Brock, Misty and May were all looking around in confusion because they were all too stupid to understand what was happening to them, although it's happened more than a million times in their pathetic lives.

"What's happening?" asked May.

Finally, the last of the smoke disappeared and Jessie of Team Rocket came out from behind a bush with...maracas?

"!Prepare para el problema!" she exclaimed in pure Spanish. The friends also stopped to notice she was wearing a sombrero with a fake mustache and a colourful Mexican outfit.

"!Hagalo duplica!" rang another voice and James dived in from the other side, also dressed in Mexican apparel with a banjo. (O.o)

"!Para proteger el mundo de la devastacion!" Jessie continued.

"!Para unir a todas personas dentro de nuestra nacion!" James followed.

"!Para denunciar las males de la verdad y el amor!"

"!Para extender nuestro alcance a las estrellas arriba!"

"!Jessie!"

"!James!"

"!El Cohete del equipo despega en la velocidad de la luz!"

"!Rinda ahora o prepare para luchar!"

"!Meowth, es cierto!" The tan cat pokemon jumped out of seemingly, the middle of nowhere, dressed in the same expensive looking outfits his comrades were in. (where on the planet did they get the money for this?)

"Now hand over the pikachu, por favor." ordered Jessie, gesturing her hand out towards the twerps.

"Yeah, and can we get out of these outfits?" asked James, wiping sweat off his forehead. "It's hot today, and I don't know if these clothes are flammable or not."

"Si, da colours sorta clash with my eyes." agreed Meowth, holding up a mirror.

Jessie rolled her eyes and grabbed the banjo, bashing the two with it. She managed to break it right through James's head and he wore it around his neck like a medal. Both he and Meowth tumbled over with torchics flying around their heads.

"There's a little taste of my Mexican fury!" she said in pride. Her nose twitched. "Frig, I hate this mustache! Who's idea was this anyway?!" She threw the stache onto the ground and stomped on it until it turned to a pile of brown hair. The children watched, obviously not amused. Jessie had seemed to forget about the mission.

"Um...excuse me, but can I have your sombrero?" asked Ash politely. "I love those things. I used to have one from my grandpa who lives in Idaho, but I lost it once when I was sticking my head out the car window."

"Oh, sure." replied Jessie casually with a shrug, tossing the hat at Ash, knocking the boy over in the process. He didn't really seem to care though, as he just brushed the dirt off his outfit and put on his spiffy looking sombrero. He tilted it in a fashion that he thought was cool, but no one was too impressed.

Pikachu almost face-faulted from his tree. This was hopeless...

"So, Team Rocket, what are you doing here?" asked Brock, hoping to strike conversation. He knew as long as Jessie was distracted, it was a good time to lure them into court. Brock was ready to get this thing off his back--that book bag sure was heavy.

James finally got the banjo off his neck and was standing next to Jessie. "I dunno." he replied. "We were just taking a long nature walk, I guess. I sure love nature. Yay, trees!" He pumped his fist in the air, causing Jessie to sweatdrop in annoyance. Instead, she turned to the children, firing back the same question in hopes of escaping any more pointlessness.

"So what are YOU twerps doing here?" asked Jessie.

"Don't play dumb. You know what you did!" cried Ash, shaking his fist. "You turned Max into a deadly robot with chainsaws that jumped into the lake and destroyed half the city and now we're all gonna diiiiiiiiie!"

All Ash received was three blank stares.

"What's it trying to say?" asked James, studying the boy.

Meowth laughed. "He thinks that we turned the geeky twerp into a robot!"

"He does, does he?" asked Jessie. "That's...that's...that's HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHA! What kind of idiots does he think we are?"

The villians all fell onto the ground, roaring with laughter and kicking their legs in the air.

The four children and Pikachu stared at them, sweatdropping.

Brock slapped his forehead once more. "Ohhhhh...I think I need to lie down." he announced.

"Why Brock? Are you tired?" asked Ash. He looked around. "Wait, where are we?"

All of Ash's friends tumbled onto the ground and sweatdropped.

"Uhhh...Transylvania." answered Misty. Ash, hearing this, began to get very excited. He clapped his hands in delight and jumped in joy, so high that his sombrero barely fell off.

"Yay! I always wanted to go there! I hope I meet Count Dracula!" he chirped. "I hear he likes to drink blood! I also want to go see some ghosts and maybe even catch one! Don't you think a ghost would make a pretty good pokemon on my team?"

"Er, Ash?" asked May in a bit of a worried tone.

"I've always wanted to meet a real were-mightyena, too! Those things are awesome!"

"Ash?" asked May again.

"And let's not forget Frankenstein. Ah, he was a hit." Ash remarked, laughing and waving his hand.

"AAAAASH!" screamed Misty, getting impatient with it all.

Ash blinked. "What?"

Misty pointed to the old tree, where Pikachu was (keyword: WAS) hanging. Team Rocket had taken Ash's rambling as their chance to make a quick getaway, and though pikachu was pretty much screaming at the top of his lungs, Ash was completely oblivious to the fact. The boy now looked up in astonishment, surprised by his own embarrassing stupidity.

"Well, this sucks." he exclaimed sourly.

"Come on! They couldn't have gotten far! If we start looking now, we should find them in no time!" Brock suggested

"Right." the children agreed, following Brock as he was their commander.

Meanwhile...with the great, talented, all-powerful Team Rocket...

"Wow. Dat was easy." exclaimed Meowth as they fastened Pikachu, in electric-proof trap of course, to the Meowth balloon so he wouldn't go flying off. All of them were somehow out of their Mexican outfits because that kind of stuff always happens on the show.

"Hmmm, I guess, but...I've been a-thinkin'." started James.

"That's a first." remarked Jessie.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" asked Meowth.

"Oh, nothing, nothing." replied James. "Only, the idea just struck me--stealing Pikachu would be so much more fun if we had some music to sing along with!" At this, he grabbed a radio from behind his back and turned it on to Mix100.

"Oh no!" wailed Jessie. "Not that old thing! I thought it ran out of batteries a long time ago!" (A/N: only people who have read Chapter 6 of TR: Unemployed will understand this. XD)

"So did I." agreed Meowth. "OH WELL! Turn up da volume and let's shake some boo-tay!" He began to dance along with James. Pikachu was still strapped to the balloon, trying to get free when he heard the radio and got excited. _Crank That Soulja Boy! I LOVE this song!, _he thought, and he also tried to dance from where he was tied captive.

Jessie's eye twitched as she sat criss-cross applesauce not too far away. "This isn't happening..." she mumbled. "This is all idiotic and it isn't happening...there is NO way I'm about to give in to--"

"_Watch me crank it, watch me roll, watch me crank dat soulja boy!_"

She slapped her forehead. "Eh, what the heck?" she shrugged and joined in with the dance.

...

Ash and his friends stopped for a second to catch their breath. Ash was panting like mad and driving everybody around him insane.

"Why are we stopping?" inquired May.

"I dunno, but it's for Ash's own good." replied Brock. "He looks like he's going to have an heart attack any minute now." He turned to Ash and looked at him suspiciously. "Have you been _forgetting _to take your heart pills?"

"NO!" Ash roared, then in a quieter voice, he admitted, "...yeah."

"And what have I told you about eating Honey Nut Cheerios for a heart healthy diet?" asked Brock.

Ash sighed and mumbled inaudibly, "To retain a happy and healthy heart, Honey Nut Cheerios gives your day a kick start."

"**Louder**!" commanded Brock.

"To retain a happle heart, Money Rut Cheerios gives your day a kick fart!" Ash repeated with enthusiasm.

"Not funny, Ash." Misty exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, stop messing around. Don't you want to find Pikachu?" asked May.

"Of course I do!" Ash shrieked. "I love that mouse! He makes my world spin 'round and 'round! He revolves around my sun! He is the great planet, Jupiter, in my solar system! He is my Milky Way! Pikachu, you are the galaxy!"

Everyone gawked at Ash in confusion and decided to ignore his gibberish.

"So Brock, where do you think they could have gone?" asked May, getting back on subject.

"Probably not far." concluded Misty. "They have the worst crime record in history. There's no way they would get away with it."

"Misty's right." agreed Brock. "Right now they are probably just hanging around in the forest and gloating about their steal. There is, of course, the chance that they actually returned to headquarters and delivered Pikachu to their boss. But knowing those three, the idea seems a little...far fetched."

"Farfetch'd? _**Where?!**_** GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!**" screamed Ash, pitching a pokeball in the air. It flew into the sky and hit a nearby tree.

"He wasn't speaking literally, Ash." Misty mumbled, getting fed up with his stupid actions.

"**GO POKEBALL!**" Ash screamed again, not listening to Misty as he threw another pokeball. It hit Brock's shoe and pulled it in with a red light. The pokeball shook three times and then glowed white. Brock looked down at his left foot, which now only had a sock.

"Ash...where is my shoe?" he demanded.

"I caught a new pokemon!" Ash shouted, still in his trance. He held up the pokeball and tossed it. "Go, _whoever you are!_" The pokeball opened and out came Brock's left shoe.

"O.o What the heaven?" asked May.

"Now, to find out your species." Ash proposed, getting out his pokedex.

"Sneaker, the shoe pokemon." said Dexter, Ash's portable electronic assistant. "It attacks by using its fierce shoelaces as a weapon, whipping its foes and spraying them with a foul odor of smelly feet and toe fungus. Sneakers come in many varieties and are known to have aggressive personalities at times, but with love, care, and clean feet, it has been known to lather love on its trainer and all around it."

May blinked. "Seriously, Ash...what the heaven?" she repeated.

"MY SHOE!" cried Brock, though it was most impossible to cry without eyes. He missed his shoe. He had it for two years...ever since that unforgettable day at Payless Shoes, the pair of shoes had always made Brock smile. But now...with only the right and not the left...it was like having the Batman without the Robin. The Sonic without the Tails. The peanut butter without the jelly.

Ash didn't even seem to notice. He was too happy about his new catch. "Hey, Sneaker! I wonder what type you are! Maybe flying." He threw the shoe in the air. It hit Misty and she almost became unconscious. "Okey...maybe not flying." Ash remarked, picking up the naughty sneaker.

"AAAAAAAAASH!" fumed Misty, looking pretty darn angry. That shoe was the last straw.

"What?" asked Ash.

Misty hit Ash in the head with her purple GameBoy Advance. He got up and started running and naturally, Misty followed, GameBoy in hand. Brock, May, Pikachu and Sneaker all sweatdropped as they watched the rampage.

"We should get going." Brock said to cut the silence.

"Yeah, let's." agreed May.

...

"_I like to move it move it, he like to move it move it, she like to move it move it, we like to...MOVE IT_!" sang Meowth with the radio. Pikachu was now free from the cage, and he and Meowth were doing a country-style dance. Jessie was watching them with little interest now, for they were getting annoying with the continous singing. James was eating a chocolate Recess Peanut Butter cup.

"Why am I getting the feeling I am the only sane one here?" asked Jessie.

James shrugged and shoved the last of the candy in his mouth. Then he started eating a Twix.

Jessie looked to him in shock. "Hey! Where are you getting that?" she demanded suspiciously.

James finished the Twix and took out a Butterfingers. "Getting what?" he asked, taking his first bite of the new chocolate bar.

"Getting..._**that**__?_" she asked, pointing to his chocolate.

"Oh, this? I don't know, but it's good!" he squealed, taking out some Peanut M 'n' Ms. He began munching on the different coloured pieces.

"Well, can I have some?" asked Jessie hopefully.

"NOOO! I found them! Founders keepers, losers weepers!" James protested, holding the bag back. "Go get your own!"

This made her mad. "NOBDOY SAYS NO TO JESSIE! Now hand it over!" As if James didn't remember the consequences of messing with the red-head, he continued to refuse. Jessie went to take out her mallet, but it was gone missing. So instead, she took out a squirty water bottle and squirted it at James, causing him to freak out and drop the remainder of his candy. "BAD! BAD JAMES! NO CANDY FOR YOU!"

"Okay, okay, you can have it, just stop squirting me with that thing!" James pleaded.

Jessie took the candy and smiled. _Hey, this thing works better than the mallet and the fan put together, _she thought as she took a victorious bite. The uproar had, however, got the attention of Meowth and Pikachu and now they wanted the candy too.

"Where'd ya get that! Give Meowth some!" the cat demanded.

"Pi! PEEEKA! (don't forget me, of course!)" Pikachu added, as he and Meowth began attacking Jessie for the candy. It was a life-death situation.

James watched them for a while, when his eye caught the squirt bottle on the ground next to him and gasped. "Stop staring at me like that!" he barked at the inadamant object.

The squirt bottle did not answer.

"Stop that, I say!"

The squirt bottle still continued to sit there.

"Oh, I see how this is!" James said angerly. "You're just keeping quiet so you can plan a sneak attack on me. Well that ain't gonna happen, buddy! That AIN'T gonna happen!" He threw a rock at the squirt bottle and hid behind a tree.

The squirt bottle did nothing.

Meanwhile, Jessie, Pikachu and Meowth finally finished fighting. Jessie and Meowth were electrocuted to death and smoking from where they lay, whereas Pikachu sat a couple inches away, unscratched, happily eating the chocolate.

"Pi. Peeka bigga bi.(sometimes it's just too easy)." he chuckled to himself, finishing the candy off and licking the remainder off his lips. He chucked the empty bag into the air behind his back.

"Hey, you little rat! Don't you _dare_ mess with Team Rocket! You hear me?" asked Jessie.

"Yeah, you do as we say from now on, Junior!" Meowth added.

Pikachu turned around, electricity sparking up in his cheeks to signal another thunderbolt attack. Jessie and Meowth stepped back with their eyes wide in fright.

"O...OK. You win." Meowth surrendered. Pikachu went back to what he was doing which--unknowest to Team Rocket--was calling on Ash and friends.

James was still hiding behind the tree and throwing stuff at the squirt bottle when an empty bag of M 'n' Ms fell on his head and he freaked out--again. Until he noticed it was an M 'n' M bag. He ate up the crumbs on the inside and then used the bag to catch the wild squirt bottle. He did it.

"HAHA! Yes, finally! Caught ya!" he laughed evilly.

All of a sudden, there was a ruffle in the bushes. This caused everybody to look on in suspicion. Jessie held up the squirt bottle, finger on the trigger, ready to shoot if she had to. "Show yourself!"

"Wha-where did you get that?" asked James. He looked back at where he trapped the bottle. The empty bag flew away on the wind. "Oh..."

Pikachu's ears twitched, for he knew who it was. "Bi! Pika pi!"

"Da twiops?!" Meowth repeated, translating Pikachu's words.

"Oh no! They can't come here! We're supposed to make a quick getaway!" Jessie wailed. She put Pikachu in Meowth's arms. "Take 'im to the balloon! James will stall, and I'll watch!"

"What? Come on! Why me all the time?" inquired James. "Why do you get to--"

Jessie sprayed him with the squirt bottle. "NAUGHTY JAMES! BAD! BAD! BAAAAAAD!" she yelled between every death squirt.

"GAAAAH! No more water!" he screamed. "Okey, I'll do it already, sheeeesh..." James exclaimed. He got in front of Jessie and raised his fist worriedly, like he was planning on punching the twerps...but we all know he's too much of a wimp to do so.

The bush kept rustling and rustling. Everyone stepped back when..._it_...jumped out.

"Uhhh...what is dat ting?" asked Meowth.

"Looks like a shoe." Jessie answered. "A very twerpy-looking one if you ask me."

The sneaker slapped the ground with its shoelace, angry at the insult. It looked ready for a battle. Jessie pushed James in front. "He's all yours!"

"Eh-heh, I don't think--"

"No, I insist!" said Jessie, pushing him even closer the the shoe of doom.

"Go get him, Tiger!" encouraged Meowth.

"Come on, it's a shoe." James chuckled nervously. "Do I really have to FIGHT it?"

"Well you don't HAVE to...that is, of course, if you'd rather get a taste of..." said Jessie. She brought a familiar object from behind her back. "...this!"

James's eyes widened. "NO! Not the naughty bottle! Anything but the naughty bottle! I'LL DO IT, JESSIE, I'LL DO IT!"

The shoe flashed its shoelaces and made a battle stance. James looked at it blankly. "Alright...this is it, I guess." he said, making his own battle stance, a very nerdy one. "HI YAH! Come and get me!"

The shoe jumped into the air and tackled into his head. James fell on the ground. Jessie and Meowth looked at it and blinked, noticing the logo on the side. "So...I heard Nikes are in style nowadays..." Jessie said nervously to cut into the silence. The shoe looked at Jessie and flew into her head, then made a U turn and hit Meowth. All three of them were on the ground, seeing stars. Pikachu sweatdropped.

"Pi...(why me?)"

Not much sooner, the twerps arrived behind the killer shoe. "Ah ha! I knew Sneaker could track you guys down, no problem!" laughed Ash.

"Hey, that's not fair!" growled Meowth.

"Yeah, leave us alone! You've caused us enough owies..." James added, rubbing his sore noggin.

Jessie squirted James with the naughty bottle. "Stop going soft on them!" she ordered. "I mean, these are twerps for crying out loud." She turned to the children. "OK, blast us off already. Just get it over with though, we can't wait all day."

"Er...weeeell..." said Brock. "We would but, that's not what we're aiming for. No...not THIS time..."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" James howled.

"Dey're gonna kill us!" cried Meowth.

"Uhhhhh...no. We're just bringing you to jail." Ash said. Misty covered his mouth and laughed. "He means, we're bringing you to...uh...Chipotle's!"

"Ooooh, burritos!" squealed James clapping his hands.

"Yeah, bring on the Beano!" agreed Meowth, running up to the twerps.

Bad idea.

To his surprise, May scooped the cat up in her arms and held him tight, not letting go. "Alright Brock, I've got him!" she yelled back.

"Gah, not so loud, woman, I'm sittin' right here in yer arms if ya don't mind!" screeched Meowth, trying to free himself from the grasp. He screamed in terror, "Jessie! James! Help, I've been trapped by twiops!"

"Meowth!" yelled James back, running up as well.

Another bad idea.

Before any other movement could be made, Brock grabbed onto his left arm and Misty his right, crossing them behind his back so he couldn't escape. "Oh, no! They've got me, too! JESSIE, HELP!" James shouted, also struggling to get free.

"Bigga...(now you know how** I **feel...)" trailed the electric mouse, sweatdropping.

"Hey!" Jessie chuckled. "So what if you got them trapped? There's no way you're going to get _me_. It's just you, the Ash twerp, and you aren't strong enough to hold someone like me back. So why don't you just give up?"

"Oh yeah?" asked Ash. Pikachu and Sneaker bounced in front of him, ready to attack. Jessie was still confused by the shoe, but Pikachu was intimidating enough to give in to the twerps. "Alright...fine, fine. You know, what? FINE! You caught us." Jessie admitted, gritting her teeth. "But why do you want us, exactly? You're working for an Officer Jenny, I presume."

"If dhis is still about dat Max da Robot thing...I swear, Imma pull my brains out." Meowth said from May's arms.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have made him into a robot in the first place." Misty suggested, twisting James's arm.

"OWOWOW! But we didn't even do it!" James whimpered, his arm hurting like a beast.

"Sure, whatever. You're Team Rocket, we don't expect you to confess, exactly." May exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Listen, twerps, we did no such thing!" Jessie snarled. "I mean, that's nonsense. All of this is nonsense. That's it! I'm out of here!" She began to walk away when Pikachu dived in front of her, scaring her with his thunderbolt.

"You aren't going anywhere." Ash laughed. Jessie just growled...more of embarrassment of being held back by a twerp then anything else.

"Can't you just believe us for _once_?!" Jessie asked, rolling her eyes. "It wasn't us! I swear to Giovanni! We're innocent!"

"Yeah! INNOCEEEEEENT!" sniveled James, his cry only making Brock and Misty hold him back even harder.

"Hm. Why don't you tell that to the judge?" asked Brock.

"You wouldn't..." Jessie growled.

"We would." smirked Ash.

"Well, I hoid every cat has his day, but I guess dis one ain't mine." Meowth sighed, hanging limply from May's grasp.

"Peeka pi...(for once, I have to agree with you)." mumbled the rat, slapping his forehead. His whole day was getting wasted as they spoke. Well, at least they had Team Rocket. As long as they can get this over with and done, Pikachu was satisfied.

Now...how to get them to court. That appeared to be a bit of a problem.

**Next Chapter Preview:**

Changed my mind about this. ;)

_..._

_Sorry if this chapter sorta sucked. It didn't really make sense either, but...whatever. I'm hoping to improve on the next chapter. At least I updated! XD Some of you people probably thought this story was dead, but noooooooooo...it's just kinda...well...stupid. Anyway, whatever. I'm ending this note now, so you might as well not hang around for too much longer...until the next boring chapter, that is. XP_


	4. The Return of the Robot

**Disclaimer: My back itches.**

_Now that that's settled, I finally present to you the next part of this story. To be perfectly honest, I was hopelessly stuck on the plot for a while and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do upon Max's return. Again, I must apologise for both extreme lateness...and the insane last chapter. I was on way too much caffeine that day... TT And blotch out that last chapter preview, I've changed my mind on what I wanted to do...heh. :P_

_Also, I have a little announcement, one that isn't too interesting, really. I just remembered that I made a movie on Max the Robot about half a year ago on youtube, and since it's kind of like a trailer for this story, I thought it was something worth pointing out. If you type "Max the Robot" in the search bar, it SHOULD be the first thing that pops up, and my username on there is rocketcanine, so just check it out to make sure. Bad quality video, but it sets a feel for the story...a little. XD_

_Anyway...Chapter 4. Be sure to help me decide on the story's villain by voting on the poll! Thankies. B)_

_..._

Ash Ketchum and his friends...well, they were finally on their way to court, just like they wanted. Ash seemed particularly happy, though no one knew why, especially since Brock made him give him his shoe back, thus turning it back into a normal...uh, shoe. Anyway, the boy was nevertheless glad. It was probably because of the simple three reasons; that he wasn't going to have to do community service, that Brock was going to buy him his My Little Pony action figure, and because he wasn't currently getting hurt and/or drowning like in previous episodes and movies.

"Ash, how in the name of Arceus can you be so happy at a time like this?" asked Misty. "I mean...May's brother--who is a robot--exploded all over town today and the only thing you can probably think about at the moment is what's for dinner."

Ash grinned even wider. "Actually, I was thinking about what was for breakfast tomorrow, and I was also wondering why Brock doesn't have any eyes."

Brock started sweating nervously, like he always does when someone mentions his lack of eyes. "Um...eh...HEY, THAT CLOUD OVER THERE LOOKS LIKE A COTTON SWAB!"

"What the--really? Where is it?! LEMME SEE!" demanded James, trying to break free of the fierce grip holding him back.

Jessie sweatdropped, crossing her arms. "Look twerp, it's glaringly obvious that you're just using that as a mental distraction so that everyones' attentions will drift away from your little conversation, thus saving you from a buttload of humiliation and embarrassment in which you would normally get from answering the question that you do not indeed, have eyes."

Brock blinked. (Brock can blink?) "Um...no?"

"Come on, just tell us, twoip. We won't let secret get out..." Meowth shifted his eyes first to the left and then to the right.

"Yeah, Brock! Tellustellustellustelluuuuuuuuus..." Ash pleaded.

Brock grunted. "I said later, OK Ash? We're a little busy right now." He searched around for a sudden subject change before adding, "Besides, we might have to go quickly. You never know who could be watching us..."

"Come on twerp," Jessie said, interrupting him. "The only people who would waste their time watching _you..._well, they seriously need to get a life!" Everyone stopped to look at Jessie, and realising the meaning of what she just said, she coughed. "I mean...um...Pikachu Watching doesn't count! That's **different!**"

"Pi..." said pikachu, lifting his head to the sound of his name, then, when registered it was nothing too important, falling back asleep on Ash's shoulder.

Meowth just sighed, seemingly giving up on his struggle. "Dis is all so stupid. If yer talkin' about more of dis Max the Robot nonsense, count us out." He replied to Brock from being held captive in May's arms.

"Yeah! Leave us alone!" agreed James.

If Misty had a hand available to smack herself on the forehead, she would've. "And you're the ones to talk."

"Just...nevermind." Brock said with a shake of his head. "Forget everything I said. We're almost to our destination anyway and after that, we'll be done. Nothing can happen in that matter of time."

Right after he said that, Ash jumped back in surprise. His eyes widened and he pointed with terror behind the squinty eyed boy, and everyone else for that matter. "Oh no! Guys! It's...it's HIM! MAX THE ROBOT! SEEK REFUGE!"

Everyone in confusion and panic, began looking around frantically for the sighting.

"HOLY MILTANK! There he goes again!" Ash screamed, pointing once more. Everyone looked around again, but found nothing...nothing that is, but a couple sniggering noises from behind them. They turned to the source of the noise--a laughing child.

"Hehehehehe! Wow, I can't believe you guys fell for that one! Even Team Rocket did! OH MAN! Jessie, you should have seen your face! And Brock...AHAHAHAHA!" He fell onto the ground, laughing and kicking and rolling all in one big heap of hyena.

Everyone narrowed their eyes.

"Hey, that wasn't funny, Ash." Misty retorted. "That little prank you just pulled was almost enough to give me a heart-attack!"

"Yeah, and what's that insult you said about my face, HM?" fumed Jessie, getting right up close to him until their noses were barely touching.

Ash wiped away a tear. "Ahaha...sorry guys. But...but it just had to be done! I mean, it was just a joke! A joke is no harm, right? Admit it, we'll all look back to this day and be laughing about it later!"

Jessie stood back up, and she and everybody else pondered what he said before figuring he must be right. It was just one of Ash's little tidbits of humor poking into the current situation. No harm really, except for the point of almost giving Misty a heart-attack.

"OK, you know what? Fine. _Fine. _But no more jokes, alright Ketchum?" ordered Misty.

All Ash did was chuckle. He thought it was funny when Misty called him by his surname. Misty shook her head and they continued walking. May took out her iPod and started listening to it because she was bored. Brock looked down at his sneaker with suspicion, hoping it wouldn't suddenly come alive again. And Pikachu snored on Ash's shoulder.

So, they walked some more. Walk, walk, walk. La de-dah de zipadee doo-dah day.

Everything was just all good and dandy (and...-cough-...boring) until Ash started acting weird again. He held his face in his hands and his jaw dropped to an unusual length. "Ohmahgawd..."

Misty rolled her eyes. "What is it _now, _Ash?" she asked in annoyance.

"I...I...I...I..."

James laughed. "Silly twerp, everyone knows **K** comes after **I** in the alphabet!"

Jessie looked at him. "...really?" she quired sarcastically.

"Oh, I mean **L**. Same diff!" James replied, quickly correcting himself.

Ash, however, did not seem very interested in the alphabet at the moment. There seemed to be something else on the boy's mind...something more intriguing, something more spine-tingling...something perhaps a little more horrifying? Thus, he continued stammering. "I...I...I..."

"Ash, come to your senses!" Misty ordered, waving her hand in front of the hypnotised face.

Brock began to look worried. "There must be something wrong!" he concluded.

"I...I...I...I...I..."

Meowth cocked his head. "Maybe he's constipated or sumthin'?" he guessed.

Ash would not stop. He was like a clock, ticking and ticking away at every second to the point of no end. Everyone, even Team Rocket were interested in what was driving the twerp so wild. Well, everyone except May. She was too busy listening on her iPod to segments of Beethoven's 376th symphony and quite enjoying it as she hummed along merrily.

"I...I...I..."

"For crying out loud, tell us boy!" shouted Brock, grabbing Ash's shoulders and shaking them. Pikachu grumbled at being awoken from his slumber. "Bigga..." he warned, charging up a thunderbolt.

"That's it Pikachu! Why don't you give Ash a little shock to bring him back to us?" Misty offered.

"Pika..." said Pikachu, too disturbed at having his rest interrupted to even listen to reason. Without a thought to spare, the electric mouse loosed a thunder attack, hitting not only Ash...but everybody else. The electrical current was so strong, it made May's iPod stop working, and she sat down in dismay, trying to make it work again.

Everyone groaned upon getting up.

"You know, I'm actually surprised an electrical current strong enough to break the twerpette's iPod wasn't strong enough to make us blast off." Jessie brought up when the logic started to catch up to her.

"I guess our bodies are getting more and more used to it and are making us more resistant to it every time we get shocked!" James gasped as he came to the sudden realisation. Almost instantly, all three Rockets ran up to Pikachu and demanded him to thunderbolt them even more, hoping they would get stronger because of James's intellectual theory. Unfortunately for them, they had _not_ come to notice that they had become free from the grasp of the twerps and could easily steal him while the others were transfixed on helping Ash...oh well. Maybe next time.

On the bright side, the electric shock did seem to help Ash with his stammering problem and he started talking normally once again. "Guys! Guys! You just won't **believe **what I just saw!" he yelled, holding a hand to his heart as if he couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

"What? WHAT WAS IT, ASH?!" asked Brock, determined to know the answer.

"Yeah Ash, you can tell us anything." Misty reminded him in a comforting tone whilst placing her hand on his shoulder. "What did you see?"

"It...it was him again! MAX THE ROBOT!" Ash's eyes darted to something behind everyone, and all of a sudden widened due to something in his vision. "Speaking of which...AAAAAAAAH! THERE HE IS! THERE HE IS! THERE HE IS!" He began pointing frantically and everyone once again got riled up and entered panic mode as they searched for the disaster.

Pikachu screamed and pulled at his ears in fright. "PIKA PIKA PI!(WHERE, WHERE, WHERE?!)" the little mouse cried.

"Someone...call the police!" shouted Brock, his slits becoming so wide that they, at one point, looked like they were on the verge of becoming eyes!

All of a sudden, Ash's face scrunched up and a huge smile spread across his face, ear-to-ear before bursting out, "HAHAHAHA! YOU FELL FOR IT **AGAIN**! It was priceless I tell ya, priceless! AHAHAHA!" He slapped his knee.

Everyone sweatdropped. Two scares in a row can really get on somebody's nerves, plus it is totally unnecessary to say the least.

Meowth growled. "Hey kid, dat aint funny! Now cut da crap, or I'll give ya a little fury swipes attack or a pie in da face...if I had a pie...but don't try anyting stupid 'cos I aint kiddin'!"

Ash blew in a tissue, his nose runny from the laughing. "Sorry guys, sorry...sorry, sorry..." he kept repeating, blowing into the tissue. "It's just...ahahaha...I...I couldn't resist...ehehe..."

"ASH, YOU..." started Misty, grabbing a mallet from her back pocket. She was about to strike it upon Ash's head when she sighed and decided not to, putting it back where she mysteriously found it before. "You're lucky you're so cute..." she mumbled, soft enough so no one else could hear it.

Brock sighed. "You know Ash, you're really going to have to stop doing that. The first time was funny but here it just marks the line. This is a serious situation which should only be handled with care and sensitivity."

Ash wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Ehehe...sorry guys. I'll stop, I promise."

Satisfied with his apology, the group of children, adults, talking cat and electric mouse continued down the road once again. May was still trying to fix her iPod without much success. Misty was still a little upset over Ash's inappropriate outbursts. Team Rocket still followed the twerps. And Ash of course, was still begging Brock to tell him why he didn't have any eyes, much to the spikey-haired teenager's dismay.

It's safe to say they were walking for a good five minutes when everybody heard a scream, and it sounded a little bit like this, "**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!**" It didn't take long to figure out where that scream had indeed come from.

Brock rubbed his sore brain from Ash's horrid scream. "Ash, remember what we told you before? No more tricks."

"But...b-but..."

"Yeah Ash, we're sick of it. What is this now, _the boy who cried robot?_" asked Misty.

"Well..." said Ash, as he began twiddling his fingers. "I mean...ACK!" He jumped in front of everybody, waving his arms in the air. "Guys, listen to me! It's Max the Robot! It really is him this time!" His forehead began to sweat.

"Ash, ash, ash..." Misty shook her head. "When will you ever learn? Hasn't it ever occurred to you that saying a joke over and over again starts to become a little old after a while?"

"No, but...IT'S NOT A JOKE! I swear it isn't!" he yelled frantically.

"Haha..._yeah_." laughed Jessie in a sarcastic manner. "And lemme guess, he's standing right behind us, waiting to bag our souls, now isn't he?"

"Um...well, I don't know about the soul part, but...but yeah, HE IS TOTALLY BEHIND YOU!" Ash cried in fright.

"Mm-hm, and even though your pikachu broke my iPod--which was my most prized possession I ever held dear to myself--I'm not about to let you fool me for more than two times in a row on this whole robot thing!" May added cleverly. (yeah, I don't think it makes sense either...)

"Guuuuuuuuuuuuuys..." Ash sobbed, defeated, stepping back and putting his arms over his head like a bomb was about to go off.

Brock chuckled. "Alright Ash, we appreciate the time and effort you put forth into this little show, but we should really probably stop fooling around and get back to business. There are things to get done, and the only way to get these things done is to try to get them done! Okey?"

Ash just cried in his sleeve.

James scratched his head. "What are we getting done, anyway?--wait, what are we even doing here? Why are we following the twerps?" he asked his teammates.

"Oh, well dat's easy. Da reason we're followin' dem is so dat we can steal dere pikachu along with all dere odda pokemon usin' some technology Jessie's hidin' behind dem bushes dat we could easily summon all with da click of dis shiny red button." explained Meowth, taking out a small device with a big red (and not to mention _shiny_) button on it. He held it up in the air in triumph.

"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL THEM THAT!" yelled Jessie, bashing the two of them in the head with a saucepan.

"Team Rocket! I knew we couldn't trust you guys!" shouted Brock, more out of habit than anything else.

"Mwahahahaha! But now there is nothing you can do about that!" James countered, getting up from the painful beating. He looked down at the feline at their feet. "Meowth, activate the TwerpBlaster2000!"

"Right-o!" replied the cat, about to strike the red button of shininess. That is, until a hand reached out and grabbed it, disabling the new attack plan.

"Hoih? Hey, what da?" asked Meowth, staring at his now empty paw.

Everyone looked down to see who or what had taken the device from Meowth. The figure was short, only a couple inches taller than the pokemon himself. His hair was black and sloppy, and he had a large optical instrument (glasses, as we earthlings call it). The shirt plastered over his stomach was an icky shade of green and he had large brown shorts that stopped right below his kneecaps. And to top everything off, he had kiddie sneakers on his feet and a yellowish backpack slinging over his shoulders. His black eyes began to turn red as he glared down evilly at the mechanism in his hand.

"Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma..." stammered May.

"Max. Max the Robot." Brock finished for her, clenching his teeth.

"Told ya so." squeaked Ash. Pikachu sweatdropped from on top of his trainer, wondering how in the pokemon world they always seemed to get themselves into trouble like this all the time.

With one swift movement, Max the Robot squeezed the device in his palm, shattering it to millions of pieces on the ground. Meowth growled. "Dat's da twoip who stole our glory! Our fame! Our money and hard woik!"

Jessie agreed, equally as angry. "No one gets in the way of Team Rocket and...gets away with it!" she added, taking a pokeball from her belt and tossing it into the air. "Go, Seviper! Teach this twerp a lesson he won't soon forget!" The black snake came out, hissing in joy as it landed onto the ground, ready for battle. Jessie turned to her partner. "James, a little help, if you don't mind?"

"OH, right!" exclaimed the distracted man, before taking out his own pokeball and calling out the cactus. "Go, Cac-" he started before falling on the ground with the thing on his face.

"Hey guys, I wouldn't battle him if I were you!" warned Brock, standing in front of Ash, May and Misty as if to protect them. "It only makes him stronger!"

James got up, holding the grass type as Jessie just laughed manically aloud. "Hahaha! How cute of you, trying to make us believe that false talk! Only too bad for you, we weren't fooled for a second!" She pointed off to the little robot. "Now, Seviper, time to destroy this ragged machine and put those twerps back in their place! Poison tail!"

James, guessing they weren't taking the advice, ordered his pokemon as well. "Cacnea, use needle arm!" Both snake and cactus flew towards the Max impersonator. Instead of being frightened, the child smiled, showing a set of white robotic teeth all in a row. He let out a sinister laugh.

"Bwahahahahahahahaha..."

"Uh, you guyses?" Meowth gulped nervously. "I don't like da way he's laughin' at us...and lookin' at us, with dat big ol' smile of his..."

"Haha, don't be stupid Meowth." laughed Jessie. "We got this twerp right where we want him. I mean, Max the Robot? What a pathetic excuse to catch us off guard! He's no match for my gorgeous seviper! Hahahaha!"

Right after saying this, the robo-boy grabbed the snake around its neck as it approached him. "Viper!" it hissed, flinging around its body to free itself, unfortunately it seemed to be stuck and there was no way it could escape. Seviper's eyes grew wide as it realised this, terrified as it tried to squirm its way out of Max's grasp, but to no avail.

"Seviper, what are you doing?!" Jessie asked in astonishment.

"Viiiiiipeeer..." breathed the suffocating snake from in between Max's hand. Not a moment later, cacnea also appeared next to the robot and punched him in the face with needle arm. Which did...nothing. Max just smiled even bigger and grabbed cacnea's punching arm with his other hand and started swinging it around like he was in the rodeo. "Cacneaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" screamed the spiky green pokemon dizzily as it swung around in circles.

"OH NO! CACNEA!" cried James in total fear.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed Max the Robot. He tossed both pokemon right at the Rockets themselves. Jessie, James and Meowth fell down with seviper and cacnea on top of them, the pokemons' eyes in swirlies, indicating their fainted condition. Max lifted his robotic head in victory. "Name--Max, Age--8, Objective--DESTROY THE WORLD!" he bellowed darkly. "**MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**"

"I don't understand." said James, pushing the dead-looking cacnea off his face.

Jessie got up weakly and grunted. "Those twerps sure can be tricky, but I'm _not _letting myself get beat. Not now and not ever. I am putting an end to this madness." She began to slowly get nearer to the robot.

"AAAAH! Jess, don't do it! Dat ting's dangerous!" warned Meowth.

"Meowth's right!" called Brock from behind the three of them, who was still shielding his friends as they watched Max the Robot with horror in their eyes. "He did the same thing to us before. Please, listen to me. That robot will destroy you!"

Jessie just turned to him and laughed. "Us? Listen to you twerps? Ha, what a laugh!" she teased. "What's he gonna do anyway, chase us around with chainsaws?"

Max the Robot smirked. If it was chainsaws she wanted, it was chainsaws she would get. He lifted his two stubby arms into the air and--much to Team Rocket's amazement--two chainsaws did indeed extend from out of them. Both of them shone with the sun's reflection on their sharp, pointed surfaces. The robot snickered and got closer.

"Maybe you shouldn't have asked!" suggested James, he and Meowth backing away from the treacherous death tool. Jessie also began to sense the real danger they were in, and blinked awkwardly before running and screaming right back to where her partners were.

Ash also screamed, hiding even more behind his squinty-eyed supervisor as the robot came closer to them as well as Team Rocket.

"It's just like what happened last time!" cried May, equally as scared, clutching onto Brock's arm.

Brock gritted his teeth. _Max the Robot is back..., _he thought with malice. He tried to brainstorm what would be the best thing to do. _The only thing he's weak against is water...but the nearest lake must be miles away, and we're already in trouble from exploding the last one. And if I try to use mudkip or lombre, he'll just use his robotic psychic abilities to disable them altogether like he did before. And I can't call the police either--he'll simply do the same with my phone!_

"Brock, what do we do?" whimpered Ash, sounding like a wounded animal.

Brock just stayed silent, still thinking of what to do. "For once...I don't know, Ash. Unless we find another weakness...another weakness other than water...then _maybe_..."

Team Rocket's screaming cut in through his thoughts. By the looks of it, Max the Robot had grown wheels underneath his shoes and was zooming after them, chasing them with his chainsaws. Missles shot from underneath his shirt like before and small bombs bounced outside from his mouth. The different exploding objects barely missed hitting the members of the troublesome trio and they danced around, dodging them and shouting in a panicked manner before heading with the others and using Brock as a shelter themselves.

"MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM!" the Rockets screamed in fright, butting the kids out of the way before they too, got up and held onto Brock for dear life.

"DOMINATE! DESTROY! DESTROY! WORLD DOMINATION!" shouted the rampaging boy, coming towards everyone.

"Now what do we do, Brock?" asked Misty, once the robot was only within inches of destroying all the life in front of him.

Brock opened his mouth. "RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" he yelled. He ran away, leaving everybody else exposed to the danger. After noticing what happened, they all just screamed and ran after Brock. Team Rocket took a little while to catch their breath before continuing to run, leaving them dangerously behind. It was a one man for himself world at this point in time, and every single person was trying to save their own skin from the evilness that was Max the Robot.

Max the Robot's tires screeched as he made a turn. He twisted a notch right above his left ankle and all of a sudden, he began going a lot faster than he was before, gaining on the running people and pokemon with rapid speed.

"Oh no! He's catching up!" observed Ash, looking over his shoulder.

Pikachu sweatdropped as he ran alongside his trainer's feet. OK, this is _really _something he did not plan on doing today.

"Maybe..." Brock panted, in front of the group but within earshot. "If we make it back to that lake, we can explode him like we...pant...did before!"

Misty gasped, a little bit behind him. "But Brock!" she exclaimed. "It's against the law! If we do it two times in a row, they'll send us to jail for sure!"

Brock grunted. "I know. But it's the only way!"

Max the Robot continued getting closer, _closer, __**CLOSER**__._

"AAAAAAAAH!" James screamed. The robot was right on their tails. "WHAT DO WE DO, JESSIE?!"

"RUN, NOT TALK, YOU DINGBAT!" she screamed back. A missle shot at the two of them and they dodged. Five to six more came at them, those of which were also dodged.

"WE'RE ALL DONNA DIE!" shouted Meowth, his arms in the air as if surrendering. Just then, Max the Robot stopped for a second, the top of his head opening like a lid, causing a _huge_ jet pack to come out, hurdling straight towards his targets. Hearing the sound of something quickly approaching them, Team Rocket turned around only to see the jet pack about collide right into them. Jessie and James grabbed each other in their infamous death embrace and Meowth just grabbed onto their legs, squinting his big eyes shut and yowling in terror.

From farther away, the twerps (er...children) saw an uber explosion. The three members of Team Rocket shot out of it and into the sky, screaming, "Looks like Team Rocket exploded off again!" before turning into a -ping- in the sky.

"I think **we're** next!" shouted Misty in horror, trying to quicken her pace along with Ash, Brock and May. The robot, having finished off his first job, then went to face the more important victims. Starting his engine up again, he went full-force right towards the screaming children.

The robot chased for a good five minutes before Brock, Ash, Misty and May all started getting weary and tired. Ash stopped right in the middle of their chase.

"ASH!" shouted May. "What are you doing?!"

"I can't...go on!" he replied, falling down on his knees.

"AAAAAAASH!" cried Misty, stopping and running back to her fallen boyfriend. "Please, come on Ash! The robot's gonna kill us! We have to go!" She sobbed, trying to pull him up with her.

"I'm sorry Misty but I...must..."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

By now, Brock and May had also stopped. "Come on, guys!" demanded Brock. "We must get out of here! The lake is very close, we can't be far now!"

"It's Ash..." trailed Misty.

"...oh no." Brock said this, not only because Ash wouldn't get up, but they had a much bigger problem now. Max the Robot had finally caught up to them, and stood right next to them. The lowered his chainsaw to Ash. "Time to get rid of you all...for good. BWAHAHAHA!" he roared.

"NO! Please, kill me first! But not Ash, I'm begging you! Please!" Misty begged, standing over Ash in a protective stance.

"OK, you first." laughed Max's deep voice. "I always have room to switch my schedule around." His hand became a gun-looking thing as he lowered a finger down to Misty's forehead. "SAY GOODBYE!" he cackled, just about to let go a bullet that may just kill the orange-haired girl. But right before **that** could happen...

"Max, my dear slave...what do you think you're doing?" came a strangely familiar voice.

Max looked on in confusion. "But Master, I thought I was supposed to kill them?"

The voice laughed. "Not yet, my robot servant. They might come in handy sooner or later. Remember, these kids are quite talented. They may have the skill and wit to help us with our domination plan."

Max sighed and put down his finger. "OK, Master..." he replied obediently.

"How dare you ask us to help you with your plan!" snarled Brock. "Why do you think we'd help anyone so heartless?!"

The voice continued to laugh. "Ohohoho. You may not have a choice, Squinty." it said. All of a sudden, a cage fell out of nowhere, trapping Brock, Ash, Misty, May and Pikachu.

"Captured!" gasped May in shock.

The voice snickered. "That's right, little girl. I have you now, and that means Step One of our plan is nearly complete. Thank you, Max the Robot."

Max the Robot bowed. "You're welcome...Master..."

Ash got up. Apparently, he had heard the whole thing and he wasn't about ready to let anybody take control of him or his friends. "What have you done to Max? What are you going to do to us? Why do you want to dominate the world?" he asked, spilling out the questions. "And most importantly...who are you anyway?!" he growled.

"Why, you may find out soon enough. But for now..." A snap of fingers was heard. "Max, please be a dear and transport these children to my evil fortress. And then..." The voice paused, only to laugh for maybe the twentyith time. "It will be time for Step Two..."

...

_YAY! I got it done, I got it done, I got it done! I know, this chapter was just full of suspense! I think I should probably change the genre to maybe or horror or mystery. And maybe the rating? I don't know, we'll just have to see. And no, TR didn't die, they just blasted off because they're lucky enough to escape from their troubles that way. XD But what about Ash and his friends? What will they have in store for them? What's this Step Two in the plan? And most importantly...who is this criminal mastermind who has their eyes set on world domination? Vote on the poll to give your opinion, but as for the other questions...it looks like you'll have to wait for the next exciting installment. MWAHAHAHA! -vanishes-_


	5. Flashbacks and Suspects

**Disclaimer: I is a kitty cat. Hear meh roar! **

_-meows- OK, close enough. Anyway, the next chapter of MTR is completed! Horrah! I'm sorry to keep you all waiting. Especially...you know...since the last chapter ended in so much SUSPENSE! -gaspeth- Anyway, guess I shouldn't really be ranting. I know, I do it all the time but I just can't help myself. To tell you the truth, I could go on and on and on about nothing of importance for hours (or in this case, pages) I guess. Don't really have much to say this time around, 'cept a 'thank-you' to Axletia Rosonetis, for inspiring me to continue this. XD Anyway, here's the next part of the story, hope you enjoy. No money or cookie back guarantees. ...sorryz...but da cookies are mine, foo. :P_

...

The children sat in the cage worriedly as they were transported to the evil fortress. Max the Robot had the strength to hold up the cage all on his own, but that shouldn't come as to a surprise, seeing as his muscles were all programmed to be the way they were. May was shocked beyond belief to see her "brother" acting this way.

"Oh, Max." she sighed, looking down at the black/blue-haired robot. The head spun around and glared at her with a smirk at the sound of his name, but then quickly returned to the orders given to him by his Master. May continued looking at him, tracing his boy-like features. Her whole life she had trusted this child, only to now figure out that he had just been a robot sent to spy on her personal and family life.

"May, you can't let yourself keep thinking bad of Max." Brock said in attempt to try to comfort her. "Just think of all the good times you've had together."

May just sighed again. "All the good times..." she repeated. She would have liked to think of the good times, but what her mind _really _wanted was answers. Had he ever acted like a robot before? Has there ever been any evidence, or anything? Any suspicious behaviour that could have led to all this? She closed her eyes and began to think back to her past.

**Flashback!  
**

_May was a couple years younger, and so was Max. Both of them were in a forest, screaming delightedly as they chased zigzagoon not too far away from their house._

"Gotcha!" said the little nerdy boy, grabbing the scared zigzagoon and lifting it to his chest. May looked over at him and smiled.

_  
"Ooh, let me see, Max!"_

All of a sudden, Max's eyes turned an EXTREMELY red colour and he yelled at her through clenched teeth. "**NO!**" he snarled. May stepped back.

_  
"Max...what's gotten into you?" she quired in shock._

_  
All of a sudden, the boy became back to normal again. "Huh? Erm...what just happened?" he asked, blinking and looking quite confused. He dropped the zigzagoon and the creature, terrified from Max's scary expression from before, darted into a nearby bush._

"Oh...it was nothing." May scratched her head, thinking it must've been her imagination. "Let's just continue chasing the zigzagoon!"

_Max nodded eagerly. "K!" Both kids laughed as they ran after the runaway zigzagoon but the whole time, May couldn't stop thinking of that evil stare he had given her. Was that...normal?_

_  
She remembered sitting on her bed that afternoon, pondering a lot of things--something she did often because she much enjoyed daydreaming. Like what she was going to do tomorrow, what she was going to have for dinner, but most importantly--Max. What had made him shout at her like that? He had never been so mean to her before! It was then when her mother entered the room._

"May, are you alright, honey?"

_  
The brown-haired girl sat up on her bed. "Mm, yeah, I'm fine Mom."_

"I don't know." her mother replied. "You seem a little pale. If there's anything you need to talk about, I'll always be here for you."

_  
May twiddled her fingers. "Well...there was a **little **something...see, about Max..."_

Her mother's eyebrow arched. "Hm, what about him?"

"Uh...well, it's kind of hard to say. He was acting...um...a little weird, I guess. Abnormal. I'm not really sure, but...it was just..." she stammered, trying to put in into words. "...he gave me this scary look and...I...I'm just not sure what to think of it..." Caroline put a hand to her daughter's head.

"May, dear," she said at last. "It must have just been a nightmare. Remember what your father said--no more horror movies at night." She bent down to give her a kiss.

"You're right...just a dream..."

The flashback faded out. Well, at the moment, that was all she could think of. She looked down at Max, carrying the cage. "Max, how could I let this happen to you?" she wondered aloud but the robot just continued smirking, not even bothering to lift his head to her.

"Ah, well. As long as we're stuck in here, who's up for a game of PacMan?" asked Ash, taking out his Game Boy Advance. Brock sweatdropped from next to him.

"Ash...we're stuck in a cage, probably to be locked up forever plus, we're probably being tracked down by the police for blowing up that lake and not coming back to court to settle the case." he explained. "Then, Max the Robot almost killed you and Misty with his chainsaw. We were about to die and now we probably will anyway...and now all you want to do is play games?"

"It beats just sitting here." Ash replied with a shrug. "Might as well pass the time, no?"

"ASH!" Misty shouted, almost tempted hit him right then and there. "Maybe instead of playing PacMan we should just listen to Brock and use our time wisely!"

Brock nodded. "Thank you Misty."

"Of course." she beamed. "Instead of playing boring old PacMan..." Misty turned her back and took out another game cartridge. "Let's play Mario Kart! It's waaaaaaay funner."

Everyone anime-fell in the cage and Ash picked himself up in glee.

"Really?!"

"No. Let's just try to find a way out of here." she informed, pretty amazed how nobody had not sensed her sarcasm before. But then again, it was typical Ash behaviour, was it not?

The cage continued to be carried by the robot. Ash really wanted to play a game, preferably PacMan, but Misty got him in the mood to play Mario Kart so he wanted to play that, too. Brock was trying to figure out a way out of the cage and May was still thinking about Max in her head. She wished she still had her iPod because she knew it would cheer her up but alas, it was not to be. Misty, like Brock, tried to think of an escape plan while at the same time, hitting Ash with a mallet whenever he said or did something of stupidity. Talk about multi-tasking!

Anyway, Max the Robot continued carrying the cage when finally, a building starting coming into view. It was a gray building. It was a scary gray building with spinaraks hanging from the edges of the stone walls and zubats flying around overhead. Lighting boomed in the distance.

"Uhhh...how can there be lighting if there isn't even a storm?" asked May.

Never you mind, we don't have time to look into science right now. Point is, the place looked pretty horrifying, creepy and just plain ugly--and that was exactly the destination Max's Master had in mind. The boy set the cage down with a large thump and all the children inside screamed in surprise, Ash hanging onto the bars for protection.

"We're here." he growled evilly. Everyone else in the cage blinked, wondering why he wasn't carrying them into the building.

"Um, Max, why aren't you--" started Misty, but he was soon interrupted.

"Master only told me to transport you to evil fortress, nothing more." he replied. "I must go back to Master, to get new orders. If I don't, Master will get upset, and I must always do what Master asks." Max started to leave.

"Erm, excuse me for prying, but who _is _your Master, exactly?" asked Brock, equally as curious as May. Max turned around. He was silent for a short moment, then spoke up again.

"Master's identity is to be kept anonymous and does not wish to be known."

"Huh? But Max, you have to tell us! I'm your sister!" May urged, but Max shook his head.

"I do not have a sister."

"Yes, you do! It's me--MAY! **I AM YOUR SISTER**! You're a part of my family, you know, in Littleroot Town?!"

Max still denied it. "I have no sister. Master is my family, and I am Master's."

All of a sudden, a voice came out of nowhere. It was the same voice from before, and no matter hard anyone looked, they could not find the source of it. "Max, my beloved, I see you've transported the children to the fortress." it told him and he nodded. "I am very pleased with your efforts today. Please, bring them into the basement dungeon, and then you may rest up for the day."

"Aye Aye." Max saluted, grabbing for the cage.

Ash looked up for a split second from playing Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland on his GBA. "A dungeon? Do they have an all-you-can-eat buffet there? An arcade? An ice skating rink? Anything?"

Misty sweatdropped. "Ash...just shut up." she sighed, rolling her eyes. Ash obeyed without question and continued playing his video game.

The next fifteen minutes went as planned. Max the Robot carried the cage carefully through the doors and hallways of the dungeon. The children inside the cage looked around at the artwork on the walls. They were pictures of explosions, destroyed cities, darkness, and even pictures of Mickey Mouse standing on top of the world--scary!

Anyway, after their in-cage tour of the evil fortress's art exhibits, Max finally came to a door labeled "Underground Dungeon". He turned the doorknob and pulled it open, creaking loudly as it did so. The prisoners looked down the long, dark staircase inside, leading down to the place where they were going to be kept.

"Um...do we have to go down there?" asked May.

"Yes." answered Max.

"But why?"

"Because Master told me to bring you there." he replied.

"Oooooooooof course." Misty remarked, rolling her eyes yet again. She was unexpectedly shifted to another side of the cage as Max tilted it in a crooked fashion in order to carry it down. It was pitch-black, however they were able to see somewhat thanks to Max's glowing red eyes directing them down the path. Everyone was scared of where they were being taken, and what their future fate might hold--except for Ash, who was still playing his game.

"Oooh--needle! I _love _that power! GIMMIE!" Ash laughed, clicking at the buttons of the GBA with his thumbs at an unnatural speed. Misty sweatdropped, but was in no mood to do anything more.

**SLAM-ITH!**

The cage made a loud banging noise as it hit the concrete underneath. The kids all yelped as they flew about the small area, then landed in a crumpled heap. Ash just bounced and hit the side of the cage's wall before falling, the whole time oblivious to what was happening as he was too engrossed in his hand-held electronic toy.

"Enjoy your stay and please, make yourself at home." the robot told them as they regained footing (well, sitting positions...they couldn't really stand in such a small cage).

"Uhh...what are we supposed to do here?" May quired.

Max shrugged. "Whatever you want, just stay in the cage...until Master comes, and they will dispose of you at their command."

"...dispose of us?" repeated Brock.

"That's right," Max replied with a nod. "Master sees you as their prisoners. It is up to Master to decide what to do with you...but most likely, you will be kept here as prisoners until the mission is complete."

"Then you will let us free?!" asked May, grasping the bars, eager to get out.

"No. You'll probably be killed."

Misty sighed, creating an anime-cloud. "Oh goody, I can now rest easily knowing _that_." she commented sarcastically. Everyone looked at each other worriedly. They were going to be..._**killed?! **_Oh my, how frightening! It was only Ash who paid the situation no heed.

"Holy freaking miltank, King DeDeDe just sucked me up and spit me up at the screen!" Ash practically yelled. "Now I only have one thingy left on the health-o-meter!" Misty was having enough of this. She swung out her mallet.

"Your health-o-meter is going to be down more than just one _thingy _when I'm through with you!" she threatened. Right as she was about to land it on him, the place suddenly became completely dark. The red, eerie glow of Max's eyes were gone.

"Drat. He left us." pouted May. "Ash, what happened to the light of your GBA?"

Ash blinked through the darkness. "Misty scared me, so I threw it into the air and it landed on the ceiling and shattered. Now it's...sob...broken..." He wiped his teary eyes with his shirt sleeve and tipped his hat over his face--which was kinda pointless...I mean, no one can see him crying anyway.

"Figures." Misty grumbled, smacking herself on the forehead. "Now I can't even see a thing."

"I can't either...but then again, I've never been able to, really." said Brock. Everyone groaned at the corny joke.

"Well, _now _what?" asked May helplessly. "Max is gone and everywhere is pitch-black! Don't you have a flashlight or something, Brock?"

"...um...well, you see--"

"Nevermind."

Everything seemed hopeless right then and there. Nobody was able to see anything at all, it was just impossible! And without a flashlight, a GBA's screen or creepy red eyes to give them light, where **would **they get it?

All of a sudden...a bright light ensconced the room! So bright, the children screamed and covered their opticals in pain. Brock just sat there.

"What's happening?" he questioned.

As soon as the light came, it left. Everyone opened their eyes slowly. Seeing was now made possible by a giant yellow light bulb in the middle of the cage with long ears and a tail.

"Uhhh...Pikachu...?" asked Ash in shock.

Pikachu sweatdropped. "Pi pi peeka tu. (of course it's me, who else? Not my fault the author forgot all about me!)" he shouted, waving his stubby arms in the air. Yes, it's true...I forgot about the main character in Pokemon. But I remembered him now. So boo-yah!

"Well...I guess that solves our light problem." Misty laughed half-jokingly.

"But there's still another problem..." May said softly. Everyone looked at her. "It's...Max. I just don't understand him. He's been acting so unlike himself this whole time."

"May." scolded Brock. "Now Max isn't really Max right now, he's something else. The Max that we're dealing with is not a human, nor is it any kind of living organism at all. He is merely a machine built to destroy and dominate the universe. Someone of higher power, the one this Max impostor calls his master, created this robot to take out their evil scheme. For some reason, whoever he or she is, wants to be rid of us."

"But Brock, who _is _behind it?" asked May, wanting to find out the answers.

Ash gasped, putting a hand to his heart. "GARY!" he accused. "It was him, I tell ya! He's out to get me, he is, he ISSSSSS!" Everyone sweatdropped.

"Personally, I think this must have something to do with Team Rocket in some way or another." Misty opinionated. "They're always up to no good...but then again, they didn't seem highly suspicious when we encountered them earlier today."

"You've got a point, but still...it seems possible, especially since what happened back about a week ago..." trailed Brock.

May's blue eyes opened wide. "Oh yeah, I remember that!" she realised.

**Flashback Numero Dos!**

_It was a pleasant day in Hoenn, and it seemed perfectly normal. Brock was cooking something in a blackish pot, probably some concoction of soup. May was polishing her pokeballs and making them all shiny and new. Ash was busily training his corphish use crabhammer, thus breaking five to six trees in the process. Pikachu was...just sitting under an apple tree, satisfied that Ash had chosen to train Corphish instead of him. And MAX...well, he was just sitting next to Brock, playing with a set of marbles and every five seconds asking Brock when lunch would be ready._

_  
"Soon, could'ya stop asking that?" Brock ordered, getting fed up with it. "Seriously, what does it take in this world for a guy to cook in peace?"_

"Hmph." Max sat down and crossed his arms against his chest. He was oh, so very hungry and bored too. Without being a pokemon trainer nor the group's personal maid, he pretty much had nothing to do during his spare time.

_All of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, some rubber hand thing extended from the sky and zoomed in to the children at full speed. Now usually, this particular hand would have grabbed for the relaxing yellow mouse under the tree, drinking coconut juice, but this time it went for an awkward turn. It dove down and rounded in on...no other than Max Maple._

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" screamed the horrified boy as he was lifted into the atmosphere. Everyone looked up from their peaceful set-up to watch at the terrifying scene!...except Pikachu, who merely lifted up his sunglasses for a second before returning to sunbathing his yellow body. "MAY! ASH! BROCK! **HEEEEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP**!" he yelled.

"_What the?" asked Ash as Corphish flew into a tree._

"Holy fishsticks! MAAAAAX!" screamed May, her face turning a pale white as she watched the hand clutching at Max's belly pull him higher and higher into the air.

"Muahahahaha!" came three corny, goofy laughs from above, inside an air balloon shaped like a Meowth.

_  
"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" demanded Ash. His corphish--a bruise on his head, but otherwise fine--stood by his side._

"We are Team Rocket!" shouted a male voice. "And we finally captured...wait a second, why are we capturing the twerp again?" There was a whacking noise.

"Just go along with the stupid plan!" yelled the second voice, female.

Ash twisted his hat backwards with this determined look on his Z-plastered-cheeked face. "TEAM ROCKET!" he screeched. "Um...why aren't you taking my pikachu?"

"Hahaha, none of yer business, twiop-o." said the third voice with a British accent.

"And what about the motto? Aren't you gonna...you know...say it?" Ash wondered aloud. It only seemed like an appropriate question at the time.

"Listen here twerp," said the female voice--Jessie. "We can say the motto as we please, but today we're just not in the mood! What, do you expect us to just spurt out the motto as you please, like some kind of theatre performance? NO! Alright, no, you shouldn't! So just leave us freaking alone!"

"_Yeah...it's called PRIVACY!" agreed James._

Everyone sweatdropped, but it was soon interrupted by Max, still hanging in the air. "Haaaaalppppp...I is dying..." he sobbed from between the red, rubber hand. (lol, rubber hand...it sounds like "rubber band"... XD)

_  
"Pikachu! Help us out! Use thunderbolt!" demanded Ash. _

_  
"Zzzzzz...piii...peeka...biiiiii...(mmm, ketchup...me want ketchup...ehehehe, I wuv ketchuppp...)" Pikachu muttered in his sleep, grasping a bottle of the sweet tomatoey goodness in between his paws, smoothing his tongue over the magical plastic surface. _

_Ash's eye twitched. "And this is the reason why I wanted a squirtle."_

"_Hahahaha, **yay**!" Meowth screamed giddily, jumping for joy inside the air balloon. "We're gettin' away with it!"_

_  
Jessie smiled triumphantly. "We be going now." _

_  
"NOOOO! You cannot take Max! I won't let yoooooou!" howled May, grabbing into the air as if it would somehow help her to reach her brother._

_  
"Yeah! You give Max back!" shouted Brock._

"We won't let you get away with it!" sobbed Ash, shaking his fist. "Corphish will get rid of ya! Go, Corphish! Use bubblebeam!" Corphish nodded and lifted his claw as he got ready to attack.

"_Uhhhh...Look! Over there--it's a nidoking selling Hannah Montana tickets wearing an isty-witsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini and fuzzy bunny slippers!" yelled James, pointing beyond the great unknown. The children turned away for a moment to see and as they did so, Team Rocket, Max and the whole air balloon disappeared in a mysterious cloud of fuchsia. Brock and May looked back._

"_Oh noes! They're gone!" gasped Brock._

"_Max! Nooooooooooooo!" May cried to the heavens._

"Ugh. Those liars." Ash scoffed, rolling his eyes. "That pokemon is **clearly **a nidoqueen, and those are totally not bunny slippers--they're frogs. And what kind of moron could mistake Hannah Montana tickets with those of the Jonas Brothers?!"

"There is no time to wonder about such things of unimportance!" Brock said to this. "We need to go find Max!"

"_Aw maaaaan. Can't I at least buy a ticket first? They're on sale!" Ash pouted. "And who cares about Max? I never liked him anyway!" From next to Ash, May started turning this boiling red colour as she stared angrily at him for his remark. She didn't say or do anything, but the look on her face told anyone who saw that she meant business._

_Corphish stepped back, frightened. "Cor, corphish, cor. (Apparently, **she** does)." said the crab-like creature, sweatdropping._

_So, the children left to look for Max. They were all very concerned about his well-being...even Ash. (Brock said he would buy him a Jonas Brothers ticket if he acted like he was concerned) They weren't really searching for too long (about five minutes) when they came to a spot in the forest thick with evergreen trees. Brock stopped short all of a sudden._

"_What is wrong, Brock?" asked May._

"I can feel my sixth sense tingling." he replied, just standing there as if taking in some kind of hints or clues from nature. "Since I am blind, I have this other sense. It is telling me that there is trouble ahead."

_  
"What kind of trouble, Brock?"_

_All of a sudden, there was this **huuuuuge **explosion! From not too far away, dust and debris flew high until they touched the sky. May, Ash and Pikachu ran underneath Brock, using him as their personal shelter so that they would not get injured from the flying crap in the air._

"What's going on?!" asked May, terrified.

_  
Ash smiled. "I just beat Spyro, that's what." he replied smugly, holding up his GBA. More stuff flew into their faces and they all ducked in pursuit of shielding themselves further. Just above their heads, three figures (two identified as homo-sapien and one identified as felis catus) soared away...faster than the speed of sound, because the speed of light is just waaaay too fast._

"_We're blasting off? Again? HOW RUDE!" yelled two shocked voices as they rose into the sky. The other voice, female, screamed out a record of fifteen inappropriate words in one entire sentence. Then, they all just vanished...over the horizon, that is._

The explosion ended. All three of the children and the yellow mouse just stood there, looking like this: O.o

"Um...that was weird." said Ash.

"_Holy crud! I hope Max is OK!" May said worriedly. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "MAAAAAAAAAAX!" she called into the great wilderness. "Where art thou?"_

"I'm right here." came Max's voice. He was standing not too far away from his friends. Strangely enough, he didn't look like he had been hurt or injured in any way at all, in fact he seemed...almost untouched. To make circumstances even weirder, he didn't seem to know any much more about what was going on than his friends did, which was clearly indicated by a clueless look on his face. "Hey guys, what's going on? Why is everything in shambles?" he questioned, looking about.

Ash, Brock, May, Pikachu and Corphish all sweatdropped. "We don't really know." said Brock.

"Ah, well. At least now that he's back, we can continue on our way to...that one town that I forgot the name of!" screamed Ash in excitement, pumping his fist. "To the gym!"

"Bigga bi...(oh please no, not again...)" Pikachu whined.

_  
"Corphish, cor cor. (I don't think we have a say in this one)." sighed Corphish, an anime-cloud forming out of his mouth._

"Right...well, I guess we'll just go now." Brock said. He, Ash, Max and the pokemon all went on their way. May was about to follow when something sparkly caught her eye. She crouched to the ground and looked at it. It seemed to be some kind of wedding ring with an emerald birthstone, right in the spot where Max suddenly reappeared. She thought she saw something like it before, she just couldn't put her finger on it.

_  
"May!" came Ash's impatient voice. "Come on, we have to go to the next gym, already! Badges don't win themselves, you know!"_

_May got up. "Coming!" she shouted back, running to them and leaving the odd ring behind._

The flashback ended. All the children stared at one another from inside the cage, all scratching their chins in deep thought.

"You know, when you put it that way, it _does _seem to make Team Rocket look guilty." Misty remarked. "But then again, you never know. I mean, they never _did_ get away with Max. So I guess it's hard to say--either way you look at it, they're either completely innocent or completely guilty."

"Yeah, sometimes it's hard to tell...but I guess Giovanni could be the true mastermind. I don't know much about the guy, but it seems possible that he would just be using Jessie, James and Meowth as bait to lure him in..." Brock trailed.

Misty nodded. "It's definitely gotta be Team Rocket, some way or another." she agreed. "...unless of course, there's somebody else who could've done it?"

"GARY!" yelled Ash, almost at random. "It was Gary, it was Gary, it was GAR-EEEEE!" Everyone just sweatdropped.

"Chillax, Ash. Why would Gary want to do this?" Misty asked, rolling her eyes. "I mean, he's just your rival. Well--_was_. Why should he care anyway? Does he even know Max?"

May suddenly slanted her eyes. "Rival..." she repeated. "That brings up somebody else...oh, I bet it was him all right...he hates my guts."

"Who?" asked Misty.

May looked as if she had finally put together all 1000 pieces of a puzzle together. "Oh, it had to be! It happened around the same time that Team Rocket stole Max! It _has _to be him, it just _has _to!"

Brock seemed confused for a second until it clicked in. "Oh yes, I believe you are onto something! He seemed **very** suspicious after out last encounter! A little too suspicious!"

"WHO?" asked Misty.

May leaned her back against the cage. "Just listen...I'll tell you what happened..."

**Flashback Numero Tres!**

"_But I wanted to go to the gym!" Ash complained, crossing his arms to his chest. He and his friends, Brock, May, Max and his trusty Pikachu had been on the road for a couple hours and now they stood in front of a large decorated building with ribbons all over it._

_  
"Come on, Ash, pull yourself together." Brock scolded. "Having May join our posse was a sacrifice you had to make and now in order to fulfill that sacrifice, you have to support her in her contests like she supports you in your gym battles."_

"But Brock, **she** was the one who insisted on joining **me**, not the other way around!" he pouted.

_Brock lifted his brow. "They're selling cracker jacks today."_

"REALLY? Then let's go then!" he yelled, jumping for joy. "Why are we walking so slow, anyway?!" He started running up to the front door.

"_Erm...alright, that works." May laughed. "Anyway, I'm gonna go off to prepare for my contest inside. You guys can go wait at the snack bar if you want."_

"K, sounds like a plan. Come on, Max, let's go." Brock said, heading into a different direction with Max, trying to catch up to the eager Ash. May nodded and went her own way. She had already registered for this contest in advance, so all she had to do was go into the Practice Room to get her pokemon all ready and spiced up for their next appearances on stage.

_The Practice Room wasn't too far away. Upon arriving, the other contestants looked up for a split second to see who was coming in, and, when deemed they had more important things to do, continued cleaning their pokeballs and feeding pokeblock to their pokemon before the event began. May herself did not hesitate to grab the bench nearest to her and start with her own business. She grabbed two pokeballs off her belt and tossed them on the floor, revealing a tall orange chicken and a pink and beige-coloured kitten who both smiled up at her in being let out of captivity. _

_  
"Alright, Combusken and Skitty. You two will be helping me out with my contest, today. Combusken, remember to watch out for those water gun attacks and Skitty, you remember to use that doubleslap and assist combo I taught you the other day." she explained. Combusken started biting at his claws and Skitty ran around chasing her tail. May sweatdropped._

"You've been learning from Ash's pokemon, haven't you?"

"_Scraaaaaaa." answered Skitty before once again returning to her tail-chasing game. It took a little while to get the pokemon to cooperate, but it was not at all a task impossible. She managed to get both Combusken and Skitty to focus, at least a little bit for now, got their pokeballs cleaned and was just finishing feeding Skitty a pink pokeblock when all of a sudden, the announcer's voice rang out from the speakers on the wall._

"Attention: All contestants please make their way to Backstage! Repeat, all contestants make their way to Backstage!"

_  
"Oh my, it is about to start!" realised May. She picked up her pokeballs and returned both chicken and cat to their homes, which she then afterward blended in with the rest of the crowd who were busy trying to shove five people at a time through one single door. It was very hard trying to reach the destination but eventually she managed to swim through the sea of humans and pokemon alike to get the the Backstage area where she slumped down on the ground and took some deep breaths. Darn claustrophobia! _

_  
"Hi, May."_

_May turned around to where she heard the voice behind her and came face to face with a roselia. She put her hand to her mouth, shocked._

"_A...a talking...roselia?!" she gasped. "Or have I just been drinking too much caffeine?"_

"Uh...neither...it's just me, May. Up here." replied the voice. May looked up, seeing the trainer standing above the flower-like pokemon--thank goodness, she wasn't going crazy after all! "Oh, Drew! What a surprise, seeing you at the Contest Hall! I mean **what **a coincidence, eh? Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose."

"May..." started Drew. He cleared his throat and tugged at his shirt collar nervously. It was evident he was trying to cover it up due to the fake smug smile on his face, but it wasn't really working too efficiently. "Well, there's been something I've wanted to tell you..." he continued. "for a long time..."

"Um, what is it, Drew? The Contest is about to start!" May said, side-glancing at the announcer coming out on the big screen to officially start the Contest.

"Forget about the stupid Contest!" Drew practically shouted, then his voice became quiet again. "There's something more important...something that I want to tell you, May...something that could change our lives forever..."

_  
"Well, could'ya hurry it up?" May asked, a little impatiently._

"May..." trailed Drew. He looked her in the eye for a few seconds and plucked a rose out of seemingly nowhere. "I just wanted to say that I--"

"_MAY!" came another voice. May instantly snapped up in the direction from where it came. A spikey-haired boy ran up to her at full-speed, then stopped once he got in front of her, panting as he caught his breath._

_  
"Er...Brock? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the audience?" she questioned on appearance of her slit-eyed friend. "And where are Ash and Max?"_

Brock scratched the back of his head. "**Ash **is at the snack bar, demanding a free refill for his Coke after he accidentally spilled his first cup on one of the janitors. I'm surprised Security hasn't gotten to him yet."

_May sweatdropped. "Well, alright. Where's Max, though?" Her blue eyes scanned the room before her in hopes to catch a glimpse of the short, nerdy child._

"Well...er...**that's** the problem..." Brock admitted.

"Holy Cheeze-Nips! Max! Is he OK?!" May screamed, directing attention from a good number of people in the room.

"I'm afraid I don't know. See, at the snack bar, your rival Harley came along. Before I could protest or anything, he just grabbed Max, telling me he'd bring him out for ice cream and promised he would deliver him back before the Contest started." Brock explained between breaths. "He swore to me he wasn't planning on humiliating you like he did before, well, at least not too much...anyway, there was no way I could've stopped him and now the Contest is about to begin and they aren't back. I don't know exactly what Harley has up his sleeve but I'm concerned about what he might do to Max. Ash and I are going to go and investigate...meanwhile, you just stay here for the Contest and do your best."

May just stood there as she tried to absorb the information. "Wait, stay here? But what about Max?"

"_Like I said," repeated Brock. "Ash and I will take care of it. You just concentrate on trying to get that ribbon."_

May continued standing there with her jaw wide open when she finally came to her senses and shook her head. "No, Brock...I have to come with you. Max is my brother."

"But your Contest, May...you pre-registered and everything..."

"_It's alright, family always comes before competition." May told him. "I'm coming with you and Ash."_

_Brock shrugged. "Uh, sure...your loss, though." He turned around and started to leave. May also began to do the same when she saw Drew next to her with a blank look on his face and quickly figured out that she had pretty much forgotten him. "Oh yeah, Drew," she said before leaving. "What was it you wanted to tell me, again?"_

_Drew collected the words onto his tongue and regained himself. "Oh...well, I was just gonna say that I hate your guts, that's all."_

"_Uhh...and that was important **why**?"_

Drew smiled at her smugly as he twiddled his rose in between his fingers. "Because it is." he replied. May rolled her eyes, not expecting anything more from Drew and ran to catch up with Brock. Drew watched her disappear and as soon as she was out of sight, he looked down at his roselia and sighed. "I just don't get it, Roselia." he said, scratching his chin. "I conditioned my hair for three hours straight and smoothed every visible wrinkle out of my clothing and she's **still **not attracted by me? I mean, what am I doing wrong? Could it have been something I said?"

Roselia smacked herself on the forehead. (Roselias have foreheads? O.o) "Rose, rose, roselia. (You're a hopeless romantic...)" she muttered.

_  
Meanwhile, the other kiddos (Ash, Brock and May...oh, and Pikachu) were busy running down a busy street as they tried to transport themselves to the Ice Cream Parlor. Cars beeped and tires screeched as they zoomed across the road. Ash was skipping merrily along when all of a sudden, a guy on a scooter whooshed past him at full speed, barely crashing into him._

_  
"Hey! Get on the right side of the road, buddy!" he yelled after him, shaking his fist._

_  
"Ash, this isn't the time to start yelling at people on scooters!" Brock advised as they weaved through the automobiles, including a Home Depot truck, an orange buggy and the Mystery Machine. "We have to focus on finding Max!"_

_  
"Oh, right!" said Ash, jumping over a blue Honda Civic and springing off the head of some man in a red convertible before making a graceful landing onto the patio next to Brock and May. As soon as they were all together, they started up again._

They ran for quite some time until they came to the Ice Cream Parlor. Without stopping to think, they pushed their way through the doors and sped in until they reached the front counter where they panted and wheezed to fill their lungs with much needed oxygen.

"_Um...may I take your order?" asked the woman behind the counter._

_  
"One eight-year-old child with blackish-blue hair, large geeky glasses and a puke-coloured shirt, please!" said May. She glanced at Brock beside her, hearts in his eyes as he stared at the woman and drool hanging from his lower lip. May sighed, rolling her eyes. "And lay off the cute girls." she added._

_  
The woman blinked. "A boy? I think I saw a boy like that matching your description but--"_

"_But WHAT?!" demanded May desperately, getting into the woman's face. _

_She stepped back nervously. "Um, he left a couple minutes ago with some weird doofus in a cacturne suit. He assumed you guys were coming, so he left you this note. He told me to give it to you upon your arrival." The woman grabbed something from behind the desk and handed it to May. "Here."_

_  
May opened the letter._

_**Dear May...**_

_**Like, OMG! I hate you! :P**_

_**Love, Harley. **_

_May sweatdropped. "Great. Another rival who hates me." she proclaimed sarcastically._

"Well, now at least we know they were here." Brock said, all of a sudden not attracted by the woman in front of him. (el gaspeth!) "But that still doesn't answer our question...where is Max?"

_Suddenly, an explosion sounded outside and a bunch of sirens went off. The building they were inside shook and the people eating their ice cream screamed and ran out the door. The woman at the counter hung onto the wall for dear life._

_Then...it stopped. A voice came. "I'm right here."_

_Everyone turned around. Sure enough, just like after the last explosion, Max stood--no injuries, boo-boos or anything--right behind them as if he magically appeared there._

"Uh...Max...what just happened?" asked Brock.

"_I don't know..." Max admitted, scratching his chin. "I can't really remember..." He looked up at the bulletins with ice cream flavours on the wall and squealed in excitement. "But while we're here, can we get some ice cream, maybe?!"_

"Ice cream?" Ash clapped his hands in delight. "Good idea!" He looked at Brock, who just shook his head in amusement.

"Alright...let's get ice cream." he said, causing the two boys to cheer as they went to stand in line. May however, looked again at the spot in which Max appeared. This time, instead of a ring, there was something else. She approached carefully and soon inspected it as a pink hairbrush. And **just **like last time, she almost thought she remembered seeing that particular hairbrush, but again her friend's voices snapped her out of her fantasies.

_  
"May! Come up and order your ice cream!" shouted Brock._

_  
"OK!" she replied hastily, abandoning the mysterious hairbrush._

All the children sat inside the cage, blinking awkwardly from the third and final flashback. Misty was the first to speak and break into the silence.

"Looks like Team Rocket's got some competition." she stated.

Brock nodded thoughtfully. "It really makes Harley look bad." he agreed. "And after he's been so mean and unfair with May in her past contests, it only stacks the evidence that could prove him to be behind this."

"But why do you think Harley would do it?" Ash asked.

Brock shrugged. "My guess is that it might be some kind of prank of his. He's probably trying to get his revenge on May somehow, and to do it, he tied Max into this mess. He could be paying Max to help him out with his scheme...you never know."

"Well, I know it almost seems that Harley really is the bad guy...but then what about Team Rocket? They were just as suspicious as he was." Misty pointed out. "I mean, which one of them do you think could've done it?"

"Either." Brock replied. "Or both, even. They could be working together. They've done it before, why not again? Harley's pretty smart in knowing what Team Rocket wants and he doesn't hesitate to give it up on account of making May's life more miserable."

"So...I guess those are our suspects, then." May said. "Team Rocket...and Harley."

"AND GARY!" yelled Ash at random.

"Ash...for the last freaking time, Gary's a scientist now...he doesn't even give a crap about you anymore." grumbled Misty.

"How do _you _know?" Ash quired. "He could have world domination at his very fingertips. WORLD DOMINATION, I TELL YA, WORLD DOM--"

Pikachu put his paws to his head, feeling migranes coming on. "Pi, peeka, peekachu...(this is going to be a _loooooooong _night...)"

...

_OK, either I updated this story, or dolphins have suddenly grew wings and learned how to fly. Unbelievably, both. It's honestly been a while--almost a month since my last update, but not quite. ;) Anyway, I know the small amount of people who have actually been waiting for this...well, have been waiting for this for a LONG time. And so, here ya go! Sorry about so many flashbacks...I was hoping to make them shorter, but it just didn't happen, lol. Plus, I know some of them were OOC. Ash mostly, but that's just because I like filling his mind with random, insane things! XD And Drew, 'cos I honestly can't write that guy worth my life. (If you happened to notice, I actually did add some contestshipping, but you can only see it if you squint hard between the lines, haha. XD) Oh, and the suspect behind it all should be obvious...at least to some of you. (I actually did give it away on some occurrences) and I'm going to tell you now, I'm terrible at mystery stories, rawr-ith. :3 Anyway...to end this freakishly long note...I is just gonna say thanks for reading and sticking with da story, even though I hardly ever update it! If you can survive dealing with an author like ol' Wolfy here, you can survive anything! So with that in mind...bai peoplz! XDD_


	6. MAX2823

**Disclaimer: Pigs in a blanket? OLD SCHOOL. Cookies in a blanket? Me LIKIE. :D**

_OMG. I updated MTR. What is this world coming to? X3 Heheh, anyway, I really have to say, thanks a bundle for the patience you've been giving me on this story. I always seem to get distracted from it! Also, I'm really not quite sure where the plot's going...yet. I assume I'll figure it out sooner or later. I'm actually amazed at how much public attention Max is getting, now that's he's a robot. He's become a much cooler character, wouldn't you agree? I know I think so! :P Anyway, as always, next chapter. More mindless stupidity on the way, ain't I great?_

_..._

"OK Brock, time to spill."

The squinty-eyed teen sweatdropped, predicting what was coming next. _Oh, please no, _he pleaded in his head. _Not this, please..._

"Why don't you have any eyes?" Ash asked curiously. Too late.

Brock cleared his throat, fumbling nervously with his shirt collar as he tried to think of a solution out of the mess. He'd gotten away with it many times before but now, stuck in the cage, destined for pretty much nothing for the next several hours, he had no excuse for his escape plan. "Err...well, you know...it's sort of a long story..." he mumbled. "I uh...wouldn't have time to tell the whole thing..."

Misty rolled her eyes. "Come _on_...tell Ash already. You know he'll just bug us about it a million times over." she pointed out. "Besides, we pretty much have a lifetime in here anyway, so might as well just explain how it happened." Although she didn't admit, she too, was curious. And without anything else to do in the dark, spooky, boring place, she had to find _some_thing to keep her occupied.

"Yeah! Yeahyeahyeahyeah!" Ash agreed excitedly, placing himself right in front of Brock, Indian Position with his hands together, resting on his lap – all ready for story time.

"Em...well..." trailed Brock. Misty smirked at him, almost as if to pressure him into it. Brock finally gave in, heaving a long sigh. If they wanted to know _that _badly, it couldn't really hurt to just tell them, would it?

Another sigh. "Alright, alright." he confessed, putting his hands up. "It was...it was super glue." Misty, Ash and Pikachu exchanged shifty looks. Even May, curled up in the corner of the cage in a depressed state, picked her head up in interest and puzzlement. Misty made almost a snorting sound.

"...super glue?" she chuckled, holding her mouth in attempts to contain her laughter.

Brock stuck out his lower lip. "Yeah...I don't see what's so funny about that." he commented. "How would you feel if you lost your vision for life due to a prank pulled by your own insane brother? If only I had known falling asleep with my eyes open would bring on such harsh consequences, but..."

Misty blew.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOLY CRAP AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LAWLZ BROCK AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ROFL ROFL ROFLLLLL! -" Misty then proceeded to roll on the floor, laughing.

Ash gasped. "Misty!" he accused. He gave an encouraging pat to Brock's back. "It's not Brock's fault he...he..." He tipped his hat down in order to cry. "...became blind, just because he happened to like sleeping with his eyes open. How would _you _like it if _you _fell asleep with _your _eyes open, and then your sister Daisy came up and super-glued them shut and blinded you?! OH, POOR BROCK! Such injustice in this world!" He then proceeded to sob.

"There, there, Ash. It's not that big of a deal." Brock assured the young boy. "I've gotten used to it, and even though I can't read Braille, I've developed a sixth sense that helps me determine what my brain sees...so all's good."

"...wait, a sixth sense?" asked Misty. Pikachu also cocked his head in confusion.

"Yeah." answered Brock. "It's kind of a complicated subject to explain. I've sort of learned how to use the ability with my knowledge of pokemon that lack eyesight, such as skitty, makuhita and swinub. Then, I tried to adapt to it."

"Uh, sure..." trailed Misty, not really half-believing what he said. "So, what colour were your eyes before they got glued shut?"

Brock looked at her. (well, turned to her, and used his sixth sense) "Brown, of course." he replied. "The same colour as my mom, Lola."

Ash scratched his head, then brought up a very curious question. "Wait...isn't _everybody _but your mom in your family blind, Brock?"

Brock flinched and then sweatdropped. _Uh oh... _"Er...well..." he started, sounding a bit nervous. "After I got my eyes glued, I went to get revenge on my brother, and once I did that, he got revenge on a sister of mine and then she got revenge and then before you know it -"

"It was inherited, wasn't it?" Misty asked, cutting in. Brock sat there for a moment, then sighed, giving into silence surrender.

"Yeah." he said, embarrassed as he let his lie be known. He traced his finger on the ground. "It was passed down from my father Flint, who had inherited it from generations beyond. It's an extremely dominant gene, so none of us managed to get our mother's eyes...it's completely in the genes..."

"But Brock, you never even wear jeans anymore. You wear sweats." Ash stated wisely.

"..."

"Ash...just shut up." Misty grumbled, narrowing her eyes.

Ash's face was twisted in an odd mix of confusion and bewilderment. "What I do?" he demanded. Brock chuckled, glad that the attention was off of him and Pikachu joined in, because he was amused at Brock's attempts to make everyone forget his lie from the past two minutes.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder why I even decided to travel with you two back in Kanto." she puzzled. Right after speaking this, a sudden sigh was heard from the corner of the room.

"Sometimes I wonder how Max seemed so trusting and loving from the start, but now he's suddenly changed into some kind of...man-made machine." May mumbled to herself, sighing again.

"May, how many times must we go over this?" Brock quired, directing his voice toward the direction of the isolated girl. "Max is merely a victim in this crisis. Someone has made him to act evil like this, and has shut his heart to love and happiness. There's nothing Max can do about it. He's still your brother, and he'll always be – the only reason he's evil is because of someone else's doing."

"You have to admit, his chainsaws were pretty cool though." replied Ash.

Misty slapped her forehead. "He almost _killed_ us..."

Ash giggled. "I know!"

May sighed. "This is getting us nowhere." she promptly said, scooting closer to the rest of the gang to share a little bit of info she had been pondering. "Look, I know we've gone over the suspects, but I really don't think Team Rocket _or _Harley could really go this far. Plus, there's been some clues laying around every time something weird happened to Max – somehow, they are familiar to me, but I can't exactly match them up to either of the suspects! I think it had to be someone else, but..." she held her forehead. "I just don't know who..."

"Was it Gary?" offered Ash.

"No Ash, we've already been through this." answered Misty with a facefault. ".."

"...was it Richie?"

Ash was simply ignored as Brock cut in, asking a question to May. "So," he started. "You say that you've found some clues laying around? Well, what kinds of clues are we dealing with?"

May scratched her chin. Did she still have those items on her? Since those times in her adventures when she had managed to pick up those "hints" in which to carry along with her, she never remembered ever taking them out at least once to observe them. She probably still had them somewhere in her fanny-pack...

She rummaged through the pack around her waist and felt around for the clues she had stashed there earlier. Pencil? Nope. Pokeball? Nope. Identification Card? Nope. Rubber Ducky? Nope, nope, nope. Items from the fanny-pack were tossed into the air in every which way as she searched for the elusive objects needed to solve the mystery.

"It's raining rubber duckies!" Ash laughed excitedly, putting his arms in the sky.

Finally, the tossing of the items ceased. After fully emptying her fanny-pack, May now held both an emerald-centered wedding ring and premium hairbrush in each hand. "These," she stated, holding them up for everyone to see. "were the couple of things I found at the crime scene both times of Max's unusual behaviour. I can't figure out where I had seen them before – would any of you guys happen to regognise them?"

Brock carefully removed each item from May's hand and observed them closely. "Well," he commented. "There's one thing we can be sure of – our wanted culprit behind this scheme appears to be female."

"...or sexually confused." Ash added.

Misty face-palmed. "Well..." she wondered aloud. "You know, the hairbrush could be anybody's, really. It could be Jessie's...or James's."

"Would they be able to afford it?" quired Brock. "But still...it is a possibility. It could also be Harley's hairbrush – his hair definitely looks like it could be brushed with a premium brush. Misty's right...the hairbrush could be anybody's, really. What I'm more concerned about," he put a finger to his brain. "is that wedding ring. That pretty much rules out any kid, even Harley...unless of course, it was illegal marriage." Everyone sweatdropped. "I'm also unsure that the Team Rocket we know are not married in any way. Plus, neither of their birthdays are in May...and the birthstone of the wedding ring is emerald."

"Right...wait, hold on," Misty interrupted. "You know their birthdays?"

Brock shrugged. "Sure."

"How in Kanto would you know something like that?"

"Urm..." Brock made a nervous face. "Uh, I don't know, I just do. Can't we just...um...accept the fact that I'm just a really smart guy?"

Misty slanted her eyes. "Don't tell me you were...maybe _stalking_ them..."

Brock started sweating tremendously. "OK, OK, I did for a long while, I admit! I just couldn't help it! I know they're criminals and all but that Jessie is SUCH a hottie! Almost as much as Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy even! Only, we were never destined to be with each other!" He sobbed in his hands. "I had even directly declared my love!...only too bad her partner was around to witness it."

"Whoa...deep." Misty said, rolling her eyes. "No wonder James hates your guts."

"STOP REMINDING ME!" he cried, still in an emotional state. Ash patted his friend on the back sympathetically for comfort.

Pikachu just slapped his forehead. "Peeka bi...(Serves him right)."

"Anyway, if you would mind...we have a little bit of a bigger problem, here." May sighed impatiently. "The ring." she continued, holding it out further. "The birthstone is emerald, and that means it has to be someone with a May birthday. Who do we know that has a May birthday?"

Ash scratched his chin. "May...May...May," he repeated to himself then smiled. "Oh, that's funny, _you're _name is May!"

May sweatdropped. "They were going to name me April at first, you know." she explained. "But they decided against it. I guess my mom thought May was a prettier name than April...I don't know, really. I think naming people after months in the first place is just stupid. Same with seasons...I mean, Autumn? Summer? Why, I even met this guy named Spring once. Kind of awkward if you ask me."

It was Misty's turn to grumble. "Getting off subject, again." she noted. "Think birthdays, people. If we list everyone's birthdays that we know, we might be able to figure it out! Or at least, narrow it down quite a bit."

"Misty has a good point." Brock cut in, obviously over his pouting spree. "To start, what are the first birthdays that come to mind?"

Ash raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"August 21!"

Misty slapped her forehead. "Ash...that's _your _birthday."

"Yup!"

Ash stared at Misty for a good long while with a huge smile spread across his face and without making any other movement whatsoever. He just kept staring. And staring. And **staring**.

A sweatdrop proceeded to roll down the back of Misty's orange head. "Why do I even bother?"

Suddenly, before anyone else could say or do anything else of importance, the loud creaking of a door arose in the silent dungeon room. Everyone perked their ears and glanced in the direction of the creaky wooden rectangle that was opening due to a turning within the golden knob. From out of the shadows, a figure appeared and began to clumsily approach the cage.

"Uhh...if you don't mind me asking," Brock questioned almost immediately. "...Are _you_ the evil mastermind behind this?"

The person stood in front of them and his image became clearer. He was tall and lean with a face full of freckles, and the outfit he wore consisted of a dorky pink t-shirt, raggedy khaki pants and brown sandals that looked like they could've come from another time era. To top it off, he wore a huge white scientist-like jacket with tons of buttons that had not been buttoned – hence, the fact that his pink shirt was showing from underneath. As the particular young man had approached the cage, he tripped over what seemed to be something in his path, causing his glasses to slide down his nose, which he quickly pushed back up in a very nerdily fashion.

"Well, as a matter of fact, no, I'm not." he said, in a deeper voice than the others had been expecting. They shot each other weird looks and then glanced back at the pink-shirted guy standing outside the bars.

"Then, who exactly are you?" quired Misty suspiciously. "You a robot, too?"

Ash shrugged. "He's geeky enough to pull it off." His comment made the man on the other end give him a look of annoyance, but it didn't go any farther than that.

"No," he replied instead, pulling his lab coat tighter around himself. "I am not a robot."

"Then who the heaven ARE YOU?!" Misty asked again.

The man took a look at each individual inside the cage, then cleared his throat. "I am William, the Mistress's servant." he explained. "I work here for her and carry out her duties, and in exchange, she gives me quite the large pay – one much more promising than my last one, let me tell you. Anyway, I've been given the job as your personal guard and caretaker, so we might as well get used to one another."

"Ooh, in that case...Hi, I'm Ash Pallet and I'm from Ketchum Town! And I'm here with my best friend, Raichu, who's going to be a Pokemon Master someday once he wins all his gym contests! Very pleased to meet you!" Ash giggled, shaking hands with the visitor through the bars. "Is it OK if I call you Wil?"

"Uhhh..." he trailed as he was shook wildly up and down.

"Thanks, Wil!"

The man sweatdropped and managed to free his hand from Ash's clutch. Then, as if Ash were a creature of great fifth, he wiped his hands on his pants with a look of distaste.

"So," May started, trying to get back on an older subject. "You said that the one you work for is a lady? That summons it up quite a bit. But then again, I wasn't too sure I'd see just any old guy walking around with a huge emerald ring on his finger."

"Quite smart, are we not, Velma?" William quipped, raising an eyebrow. "You are indeed correct, my Mistress is in no form male in any manner. If figuring out her identity is what you are trying to do, I can assure you, it is a huge waste of time. My Mistress plans to reveal herself shortly, so it would be utterly pointless to spend hours puzzling about the ordeal."

Misty didn't look so happy. "Alright, wise guy..." she fumed, putting her hands to her hips. "If trying to solve a mystery would be considered wasting time, what do you suppose we do then? Unless you haven't noticed, we **are **stuck here in a cage, you nincompoop!"

William just smiled, ignoring the insult. "Yes, you are in a most hopeless situation, if I did say so myself." he replied, picking at his nails. "Frankly, I don't care what the heck you do in there – it won't matter later, anyway. Either other way, my Mistress will still see to the disposing of you meddling kids, and your little pikachu too."

Pikachu sparked his cheeks. "Pi peeka! Pikachu! (Enough with the lame Scooby Doo jokes, already!)" he growled, slightly annoyed.

"Hey Wil," Ash started suddenly and out of random. "Why are you here? Did you come to bring us food? 'Cos I'm hungry!" He rubbed his rumbling tummy for emphasis.

"As a matter of fact..." William responded as Ash's eyes began to lit up, "...no." Ash frowned.

"Just kidding!" laughed William. "Yah, I did." Everyone sweatdropped. "Mistress ordered me to bring you down some table scraps from yesterday's dinner. She hopes it is enough to keep you all alive so you can witness the great domination plan in action when the time comes. She is very excited for you to see it."

"I bet she is." Misty mumbled sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"You said you have food, Wil?" Ash pushed on, trying his hardest not to get too off subject from the things of importance. "Can you give us it? I am very hungry! Please Wil! PLEASE!" He sunk to his knees in a pleading stance, whispering the word "please" over and over again as if it would have made any difference.

"Geez, kid," William replied, scratching his head. "No need for begging, I already said -"

"PLEASE!" he screamed.

"Um...kid, really," William said uncertainly. "I told you I'm going to -"

"OH PA-LEEEEZE!" the child moaned. "PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEEEEEEAAASSSEEE!" He bowed down to the ground, grabbing it with his hands. William sweatdropped.

"You learn to ignore it after a while." Misty assured with a sigh. William did not know what to say in response – he kept a blank look on his face, then cleared his throat.

"Um...alright." he finally said, straightening the collar of his dorky pink shirt. "Anyway," he started. "I was just going to tell you that if you want your food, you are going to have to wait over by the far left hand corner of your cage. It will come to you soon enough."

"Food? What kind of food?" asked Ash excitedly, no longer in a depressed state.

William smirked, or at least, did the best that one of such nerdiness could muster. "Only the most delicious." Ash clapped his hands in response and then ran to the left corner of the cage, eagerly awaiting his meal. William's watch beeped and he glanced down at it. "Oh, would you like at the time?" he gasped. "Now, it was very pleasant meeting you prisoners, but I must be on my way. So much to do and so little time to do it. See you all soon...have a great day!" William shouted hastily as he left the room, shutting the door on his way out to bring silence to the place...or at least, for the first three seconds.

"Oh, that Wil, he's so generous," laughed Ash. "I mean, what a guy. Going out on a limb just to get us the most delicious food in the whole entire world. Gotta respect people like that, ya know?"

Brock sweatdropped. "Ash, he was only being sarcastic." he explained.

"Aw, Brock!" Ash giggled. "You're just jealous, aren't you? It's OK, someday you'll probably figure out how to make things other than soup or sandwiches." he assured. "Heck, maybe it'll be easier once you get yourself to learn Braille!"

"He's probably not going to feed us at all." May sighed.

"He is." Misty argued. "He said his little _Mistress _person wants us to stay alive. To witness her world conquest? Pssh...oh please, like I believe that. She's probably gonna turn us into computerized robots like she did to May's brother."

"Max..." May whispered, unable to get the image of the short boy with the glasses and green shirt out of her mind. Which brought up the question...where was he now, anyway? Was he carrying out evil deeds for his master? Was he sharpening his chainsaws so he could kill them all on mere command? May couldn't stop thinking about it, as much as she tried. Even Ash's annoying yakking couldn't get the boy out of here head. _Max, _she thought to herself, almost wishing he could hear her as she clutched onto the thick metal bars. _Where are you, my brother?_

...

"Wake up, my sweet, darling servant." a voice with a viscosity of honey flowed into the room.

The boy's eyes cracked open to the gleaming lights above him. He blinked a few times to get used to the light and as he did so, the blurred figure in front of him became clear.

"Um...where am I?" he asked, completely confused. _Do I have amnesia or something?, _the boy thought to himself instantly. It seemed to be a possibility, since he couldn't remember anything about his past. In fact, he didn't remember anything at all – that he was pretty sure of.

"That does not matter, my beloved robot," the woman towering above his body assured. "What does matter, is that I have finally gotten your batteries changed and your system has been completely wiped and rebooted. Now, may I ask," she went on. "My robot, do you happen to remember anything about yourself? Anything at all?"

The boy began to gradually sit up, hoping that somehow it would get his brain running again. He just had so many questions! As he closed his eyes and tried to think of something – just any little piece of information about himself – until reality swept in and he realised that he really was clueless. He shrugged helplessly and looking into the eyes of the woman he responded, "no."

The woman smiled. He wasn't sure why she was smiling, she just was. Was it good that he had amnesia? Maybe he was a villain or something in his past...that would explain why this woman was so overjoyed about him losing his memory. Apparently, from the information gathered, he was a robot. A computerized machine? That couldn't be true. He smoothed his hand down his leg, only to feel hard metal underneath with a nail hammered into his kneecap. He gasped. He really _was_ a robot!

"E-excuse me, ma'am," Max stammered quickly. "But...am I really...a robot, like you say?" The woman nodded back.

"Yes," he replied. "You are indeed, a robot." She watched as a frown enveloped on the child's face. "Oh, don't get me wrong, though," she hastily added. "Being a robot isn't that bad...no, it isn't at all!"

Max scratched his metal head. "It isn't?"

"Oh, **no**!" the woman laughed. "Of course it isn't. Why, robots have so much more potential then humans, my dear. They have their own weaponry developed from inside of them, so they never have to worry about anything bad happening to them. Plus, they have sturdy wheels for rolling around and a heavily armored body to protect them from any harm...whether it be fire, grass, electricity." She laughed again. "Why, the best part about being robot is that no matter what happens, you never die. Sure, you run out of energy and sometimes go a bit out of control, but that is easily fixed within minutes of battery re-charge and you're back to normal."

"...never die?" Max repeated. "I'm immortal?"

The woman nodded. "Well, yes, for the most part, you are." she replied. "There's only one thing that can kill a robot like you."

Max's eyes widened. "W-what can kill me?" he asked.

The woman's smile curved and she continued speaking to him in her sweet, milky voice. "Oh, only water," she answered. She saw Max's face twist into fear. "But it's not that big of a deal..._usually_."

"What do you mean, usually?"

"Well," she went on. "It is true that I still have not been able to figure out how to make you completely stable. For some reason, water continues to be a problem with your programming. You've only been exposed to water once, and when you did, you..." she cleared her throat. "..._exploded, _an explosion so large that your parts were blown all over Lake Gowawa and beyond." Max put his robotic hand to his mouth as he listened. "And let me tell you," the woman went on. "It took a lot of time and effort to find them all and piece you back together. We even had make you a new chainsaw and arranged a new nose for you. Those pieces were unfortunately lost for good and not even my excellent henchman could find them."

"So, if I touch water," Max whispered softly. "Then I will explode."

"Well, yes, that is also true," said the woman. "But it shouldn't be much for you to worry about, Max. I've been keeping you well away from H2O so you can rest knowing that, for the most part...in this building, you are safe."

"So, my name is Max." the robot breathed. He had been wondering that ever since he woke up, and now he finally knew. Now that he knew his name, was it possible he could remember some of his past too?

"Yes, that would be your name." confirmed the lady. "MAX2823. That is what I named you when I first created you."

"So, I am Max, the robot." he repeated again, trying to sort the information given. He looked up at her in a confused state. "That is who I am?" The woman nodded. "Then who are you?"

The lady seemed to flinch a bit, but quickly redeemed herself. "Why, I am your master, Max. Your creator. The one who brought you into this world. You work for me because that it what you were made to do. I have been waiting a long time for us to finally come together again."

"We were separated?" he quired. "Why?"

"Well," the lady started. "About two years ago, I sent you along with a girl going on a pokemon journey, disguised as a human. I sent you off hoping that you could gather important information for me about everything you experienced – like people, pokemon and even the environment."

"Why did you want me to gather information?"

"It was all part of the plan," she further explained. "With the information you collected into your storage chips, I would know how to make my plan completely full proof. Fortunately, I found a couple chips unharmed, so the data is being downloaded to my computer as we speak."

"But, I still don't understand," the boy muttered. "How were we separated? What kind of plan are you trying to fulfill? Why do I have amnesia?"

"Oh, dear Max," she cooed, patting his head. "These things will surely clear up in due time. But...there is a little something that I would like to show you. Something _important._"

"Important?" Max asked. What could it be? What was so important? Would he finally uncover some of his past?

The woman shuffled in her pocket and drew out a picture. "This," she told him, placing the photo in front of his face. "Is a picture I have downloaded from your storage units. You must have taken it with the hidden camera between your teeth." She shook her head with a smirk. "You never really knew how to control that thing very well."

Max stared closely at the photograph in front of him. The figures on it consisted of a boy with black messy hair and a red hat, a girl with long brown hair and a bandanna, a man-boy with slits for eyes and spiked brown hair, and a small yellow rodent with sparks flying from its cheeks. They were all standing in front of a large lake of water. Max cocked his head. "Who are those people?" he asked. The photo was snatched away as quickly as it had been placed before.

"Those people," she hissed, in a much angrier tone. "Those are our enemies, the ones who nearly killed you."

Max gasped. "B-but..." he protested. "They didn't look too bad to me. Why would they want to kill me?"

"Because," the woman continued, sneering. "They're goal is to ruin our plan, our perfect plan, and to conquer the world in our place. All they want..." she went on, lying, "Is to dominate the world. To get rid of anything that isn't human. To get rid of your kind Max...you and other robots like you. They want to kill you all."

Max just couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Th-that's so cruel..." he responded. He didn't want to believe it, but the woman seemed so sweet and sincere – she just had to be telling the truth, no matter how astounding it sounded.

"I know...it is, isn't it?" she sighed. "It's a shame that such evil people must exist in this world. But you know," she patted his back. "Everything is going to be alright, Max. If you help me prevail with my plan, we can save all the robots and bring peace to the world again."

"We...we can?" Max sounded relieved. "But, what about those people that are out to kill me? Won't they come and try to hunt me down?" A terrifying image crossed his mind and he closed his mouth to keep from whimpering in fear.

"No, they won't, my dear." the woman assured. "I have captured them. They are behind bars for now, so you are safe. But the thing is..." A fake tear slid down her cheek. "It isn't always going to be that way. Not unless you can agree to help me, Max. A mere human like myself and my henchman can not do it. I'm counting on you Max, to help stop this injustice. To bring robots back and to stop them from being killed so inhumanly. Will...will you agree to help? You're our only chance."

Max couldn't help seeing this woman in such a depression. Was it really true that without his help, the world for robots would be doomed? They would all be killed by humans...including him? He didn't want that kind of future...he just wanted to be in a place where everybody could be happy, where robots and humans and pokemon could all just live together in happiness. If it took his help to get to that ending, then he decided he would do it.

"OK." he said softly, shaking his hand with the woman. "I will join forces with you."

The woman turned her head enough so that the robot would not see her grinning evilly from under the shadows. _I've finally got you Max, _she thought, hiding in a snicker. _It seems it was easy to gain your trust when you don't have any remembrance of your past. Another phase of my world domination plan...is complete, thanks to you. _She then turned her face back to the boy and squeezed his metal body in a tight embrace.

"Oh, thank you so much, my sweet robot." she told him softly...and then in an even softer voice that he could not hear, "I will indeed be counting on you."

...

_Dang, finally finished this chappie...THAT took a while. X3 Anyway, dun forget to review and stuff! :P_


	7. New Assignments

**Disclaimer: Violins taste like wood.**

_Uh oh, another chapter of MTR. That means more random insaneness – which could be a good thing or a bad thing either way you look at it, I guess. O.o Anyway, yeah. Here is Max the Robot once again...FTW. _

...

A lone creature lurked out from its isolated corner. It was small, had two white strips coming out from its sides and smelled like rotten cheese. It had been awakened by the sound of typing fingers on a keyboard of a Windows Vista laptop. The sound of typing reminded it of the day it had been so rudely booted aside in hopes that it would be forgotten. A growl formed from deep within itself as it approached its unsuspecting prey at the computer.

"You thought you got rid of me," the creature seethed, its voice causing the writer wanna-be to turn and face it. "You thought you got rid of me but you didn't. You didn't! You shall never be rid of me! NEVER! And I will find a way to snoop myself back into this story if its the last thing I do...oh, just look at you. You pathetic, ungrateful thing. I can't believe you would do this to me." It twirled its shoelaces up in fury. "I'll give you one last chance. Put me in this story _now_, or face the wrath of my toe fungus attack!"

"But I can't," the author protested casually, taking a drink of chocolate milk. "There's no soda left in the house. And I'm afraid it's only possible for me to put you into this story on the account of me getting high on caffeine."

"You will put me into this story."

"No, I will not."

"You will."

"Not."

"Will, GOSH DARNIT!" The shoe ate Wolfy's left foot, because it was covered in a delicious, stinky sock. The sock exploded, and so did the chocolate milk. And good 'ol Wolfy – now with an empty, cold, sockless foot – got back to typing, because people are much more interested in reading about a stupid Ash and a robot Max than a fanfiction writer drinking chocolate milk and arguing with a psycho sneaker.

...

Anyway...where were we again? Ah yes.

...

From the far corner of the cage in the wall, a large, funnel-like tube appeared. The tube branched down into the cage in front of the unsuspecting boy, who yelped in surprise as he leaped away as to not get hit. From out of the tube, a platter stacked with unidentified substance (with a plastic wrapping on top to keep the stuff warm) plopped into the area of the cage. The boy, curious, leaned in to see more of the mysterious tube – however, he was again forced back as three more platters looking much like the last followed suit and clanked down onto the cold, hard floor. Then, as soon as the tube had appeared, it was gone, recoiling itself back into a hole in the wall which automatically shut, making it look like nothing had happened at all.

The boy sat there and poked at the mush with a nearby stick on the platter in front of him. "Ooh," he exclaimed. "Squishy."

Everyone else sweatdropped. "What luck," muttered Misty. "How heartless can these people be, anyway? Who would be so cruel and unkind to such poor, starving children? They're monsters!"

"A better question is, why did icky turd just come out of that mysterious tube?" Ash asked with a sickened look on his face. "It's smelly! Kind of fun to poke, though." He took the stick and poked at the brownish-green gunk some more.

"Ash, stop poking it." Brock demanded calmly. "It might be poison or something. And poison could kill you! You don't want to be poisoned, Ash. If you're poisoned, you can never become the Pokemon Master!" Ash gasped and flinched, scooting away from the mushy article of rotten food/poison/etc. Brock continued. "We must be cautious when investigating this foreign...stuff, that just happened to appear here. It may call for a crisis situation if we don't."

"Pi. Pika pika." said Pikachu, but no one understood a 'pika' of it. However, that was beyond the point. What mattered, is that the yellow mouse was curious too. He stepped up toward the plate of glop and slowly put his nose to it.

"What's Pikachu doing?" Ash did not fail to ask.

"Pikachu seems to be smelling the unknown material so that he can warn us if it's poisonous." Brock observed wisely. "Pokemon have always been ready to protect their trainers in times or hardship and through thick and thin. Pikachu must not be different. He (somehow) feels a connection with you as his trainer and wishes to be your loyal friend. And protecting you from eating diseased food is probably what he's doing to show his affection."

Ash's eyes sparked with joy and love for his beloved pokemon. "Oh, Pikachu! You're a great pal!" he assured the electric-type.

Pikachu appeared not to listen, but finally seized enough courage to take a whiff of the gloopy, slimy, diarrhea-like meal set out before him. In one mere sniff, Pikachu's eyes became swirlies and he coughed and hacked, rolling on the floor while moaning and cupping his paws around his nearly broken nasal cavity.

"I'd say it's edible enough." Ash noted with a shrug, as the theatrical scene continued to play – Pikachu now clutching onto his throat with both paws as he fell to his knees, faking an incredibly woeful death.

"Ugh, that's disgusting, Ash." Misty snorted, wrinkling her nose. "You'd have to be pretty desperate to allow junk like _that _to clog up your arteries."

Ash grabbed a fork and piled into a plate, his hunger obviously taking over his mind for the time being. "Oh, come on Misty, it can't be that bad! If that evil person with the ring and the hairbrush sent it down to us, it has to be edible in some way or another!" he encouraged with confidence. "Plus...if you don't eat it, you might starve!"

Misty sweatdropped and heaved a sigh. "Personally, I think I'd rather starve first."

"I'll pass too." added May softly, her voice a rare one to be heard as she was mostly too busy letting thoughts of Max and his robotness plague her mind.

Ash laughed. "Ah well, suit yourselves! More for me then!" He dove into the the pile of who-knows-what as his friends watched with a mix of amazement and disgust. Pikachu's death-scene meanwhile, had come to an end and the yellow mouse lay on the ground, tongue sticking out and with a tiny paw to his heart.

All of a sudden...a voice out of nowhere! "So, I take it you children have enjoyed your dinner?"

Ash's head rose from the meal he was so quickly devouring. "It's Wil!"

Misty put her hands on her hips. "I thought you said you had important business to attend to?"

The geeky man on the other side smirked and lifted his glasses just a tad bit. "You are correct, I did indeed have some important business. I had an intellectual chat with my Mistress about her plans for world domination and more _importantly_..." He chuckled. "What to do with you little brats. And we came to a census, that we did..."

"Please, don't kill us!" begged May, clutching her hands around the bars. "At least before you do, let me see my brother again! Please! It'll mean so much if I could just at least speak my last words to Max!"

William lifted his brow. "Who said anything about killing?"

May went silent, her tensed body relaxing a whole lot more as she resleased her grip of the iron bars. "...you mean...you aren't going to kill us?..."

"No. Well, not **yet **at least." William assured. "Keeping you in that dirty old cage for all these hours really doesn't add up to any worth whatsoever. As long as you prisoners are here, you might as well do something to help us out, now hmmm?"

Brock saw the gleam in the nerdy scientist's eyes with the last sentence and he couldn't help clenching his fist. "There's something awfully wrong about this...he's planning something...and if we disobey his orders, we could be automatically eliminated...looks like we have no choice but to do as he says..."

Ash frowned. "Aw, and I didn't even get to finish dinner yet!"

...

"Oh, my! What a fun contest! And of course, without May there, _I _had to win that ribbon. That silly May. Always winning those contests like a little Mary-Sue! But for once, she wasn't there, now was that sweet little girl? Haha! Oh, I am such a **great **coordinator, and now finally, people can come to appreciate the wonder that is _me_! Talent and good fashion – May could never add up! Never! In fact, in all these contests -"

"OK...I think I get your point already, now will you just shut up?"

"Awww...you're no fun, Drewsie-Pants, you know that? You're just jealous that I happened to win that contest, and you never stood a chance...especially without -"

"I said shut up! Geesh!" The green-haired boy rubbed his temples. "Gawd, you get on my nerves! In fact...I don't even like you! You're a creep that dresses like a cacturne and sounds like Barney the Purple Dinosaur – honestly, I don't know where my dignity went when I decided to follow you!"

"I already told you, you silly Lettuce Head." Harley replied. "May's pathetic excuse for a brother seems to have an intriguing quality about him. I know this has to be one of May's little secrets and as long as I can get my hands on it, I'll find a way to turn it against her in the next competition!"

Drew stopped in mid-walk. His eye twitched. "What...did you call me?"

"Lettuce Head?" Harley repeated, but before he could say anything else, Drew made a loud wailing noise that seemed quite unfitting for his nature.

"I've told everyone a million times!" he cried out. "**Don't **call me Lettuce Head! I am...not...to be mistaken...with a vegetable...!" He put his hands to his eyes and sobbed. "I don't even like lettuce, all it tastes like is leaves with a bunch of tomatoes thrown into it! Just because I have green hair, everyone automatically assumes..._'Oh, __**he **__must be a vegetarian, only someone who could eat too many greens would have his hair turn that hideous shade'! _You know what, this hair colour is natural. NATURAL. I was born with it! I'm not some vegetable-obsessing freak! And you know what? Vegetables are overrated! If it were my choice, I'd never eat them!" He pouted into his arm, feeling a bit emotional after the personal rant.

"Awww, poor little Lettuce Head, should I get you a drink?...how about some Italian dressing!" Harley said in a sickingly sweet voice, mostly to get on the green-haired boy's nerves.

Drew's green eyes slanted, his sentimental self quickly being replaced with that of fury. He lowered his hand down to a pokeball and brought it up to his face before calling out the pokemon from within. "Masquerain, silver wind!" he ordered, pointing towards Harley.

The flying/bug type, coming out from the red and white ball it called home, obeyed immediately and shot out a huge wave of sparkly wind at Harley, practically knocking the wind out of him! (sorry, that one just kinda slipped out...)

"Oh noes! Perfection is ruined!" yelled the man in the cacturne suit as he gained composure from the attack, trying to wipe off the dirt on his outfit received from his fall to the ground.

"Hmph." Drew responded, flicking his hair. "That's what you get for messing with _us_, eh Masquerain?"

"Masqueraaaaaiinnn!" the pokemon agreed, spinning around in the air joyfully.

"Ugh...the nerve of you, Drewsie." Harley scoffed. "You and May would be a perfect couple – both annoying, vile little children whos' strategies to play fair always overcome my super-genius evil plans! Ugh! I'd allow Cacturne to get revenge on you for that, only there are more important things to focus on that don't include wasting my time with a lettuce-headed, vertically-challenged beast of a boy!"

"Oh yeah...what were you saying you called me out here for, anyway?" Drew quired, somehow keeping his cool through his annoyance. "You're right, all this goofing off is an enormous waste of time that I **could **be using to prepare for the next contest!"

"Who cares about the contest?! If we stay with the mission, we might find out something a lot more important than that!" Harley argued.

Drew blinked at Harley, then snorted. "OK, so what is this, a mission now?! This is all stupid. Personally, I don't give an phanpy's crap about the private life of May's brother! In fact, I never even cared about her brother, he's just some geeky kid with an abnormal amount of knowledge! I really don't understand what you find so interesting about this...all I know, is that you can count me out!" The boy turned to leave but was stopped short as Harley clutched onto his arm, preventing escape.

"Hey! Let me go, gosh darnit! I have my rights!" Drew retorted, trying to free his arm from the grip. "I swear, I'll call the cops on you if you don't leave me alone!" He saw his pokemon floating up above, looking shocked over the situation. "Masquerain! Scary Face!" he called out to it.

"Mas...**masqueraaaaain**!" the pokemon bellowed, making a horrifying face down at its target. Harley, not enjoying the view of the ugly face turned away in disgust, letting go of Drew's arm.

"Fine. _Whatever_." he replied sourly, waving his hand to get rid of Drew. "If you don't want to be a part of witnessing possibly one of May's most private and devious secrets, then get your hideous salad head out of my sight! Go on now...shoo! Get!"

"You know what? Maybe that's what I've been thinking from the start! I don't need to bruise my ego hanging out with a weirdo like you." Drew countered, rolling his eyes. "Come on Masquerain," he gestured toward his pokemon as he once again turned to leave. "Let's get out of here."

"Hmph. Never liked him, anyway." Harley huffed. "I'll just go in and investigate myself." Without anything more to slow him down, the purple and green-coloured man made his way back down the original path he was taking before – the path to the evil fortress (or at least, to the extent of where he _thought_ it was).

**-cue background music that sounds suspiciously like an evil version of Pink Panther-**

"Ahahahahahaha!" a voice laughed against the music. The owner of the laugh removed the binoculars from her eyes as Harley walked away to the fortress. "It looks like we're in luck! That pathetic robot of a twerp may have beat us before, but now we can finally get our revenge! How do you think the boss will like it when we bring him back something even better than a rare and powerful pokemon? That robot can withstand pokemon attacks and even has free weapons complete with the overall package! Just think of the lovely paycheck we'll get for capturing that geeky twerp...I can see that vacation in the Orange Islands already! Let's go get him, guys!"

"..."

The woman sweatdropped. "Guys?!" she repeated. "What the...where the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks did you go? You should be over here, helping me be annoying!" She turned around, looking for the disappearance of her partners in crime – when, ah ha! There they were, sitting sprawled out in the grass right next to none other than...oh Arcues no...not _that_...

"_...and you won't ever guess what she did to me then..._" the voice crackled from inside a small black radio. "_She fed me...five minutes __**late**__. I swear, it was the worst moment of my entire life! I felt so weak...so intoxicated by hunger, I thought this very well would've been my death! But it gets even __**worse**__...my human, she...she...gives me DRY FOOD?! Excuse me? What kind of terrible world is this?! Dry food is for chumps! Oh, woe is me! It was a terrible day! A terrible TERRIBLE day!..._"

The cat-like pokemon, Meowth, sniffed and wiped away a tear as he listened. "Ain't dat da truth, bruddah!" he cried, raising his arms.

James rolled his eyes. "Oh, Meowth, that is so booooooring," he complained. "I wanna listen to music, not some cat whining about his shortage of Fancy Feast® gourmet cat food!"

"You has absolutely no appreciation for da feline race!" Meowth accused. "We lead very challengin' lives, you know! But...OK, ya know what, fine. If yer dat desperate, go ahead and listen to dat Disney Princess CD or whatever crap it is you humans listen to."

"YAY!" James squealed delightedly, reaching for the radio.

"Hold on a minute!" Jessie ordered before anything else could be done. Her eye twitched at the sight of the radio. "Where did you get that?!" she asked, pointing at the object in question. "I thought I got you two iPods so you wouldn't blast that stupid thing!"

"Uh, ya did, but...you see..." started Meowth, scratching his chin nervously. "Remember how ya tried ta throw da radio into dat pile of lava before we founds out it wasn't flammable and completely indestructible?"

"Well, the iPods were neither flammable, nor indestructible!" James finished. "Burst right up into flame and that was the end of them. Unfortunately the experiment cost us the iPods but the good news is that it looks like we'll never lose our radio!" He hugged the beloved man-made contraption and Meowth joined in, purring as he stroked the smooth, black surface.

Jessie gasped horrifically and slanted her eyes. "Those iPods cost me half a year of our salary!" She threw her left boot at James and he fell to the ground in a daze. Meowth pointed and laughed. Jessie threw her right boot at Meowth and he suffered a similar fate.

"Ah, geez..." James responded as he got up, rubbing his cranium. "Why couldn't you just give us the paper fan or mallet treatment like you usually do?"

Jessie shrugged. "The sneaker didn't get put back into the story so it was the best we could do. Anyway..." she started, getting back on subject. "If you two nincompoops have been paying attention before, you would have realised that we have just gotten a chance to seize the opportunity of stealing Max the Robot and giving him to the boss...and that opportunity is slowly slipping away between our fingers as you two sit your lazy butts around like couch potatoes!"

"Oh, so ya've found da robo-twoip?" Meowth quired, ecstatic. "Where'd he go? Lemme at 'em!" He put his fists up as if he were about to be placed in a boxing ring.

"Shhh! Shut up!" Jessie hissed. "We're going to follow that deranged Barney twerp and he'll lead us to where we want to go. But if you don't keep quiet, he'll hear us and we'll be goners! Or worse...he'll make us join forces with him just so he can win a contest and force his cookies that taste like frozen pieces of ponyta crap down our throats!"

James and Meowth gulped loudly, covering their mouths and nodding in understanding. Now _that _was a punishment too severe to risk...and one what wouldn't be risked as long as they had anything to do about it.

...

"So...do you care to explain to us what you've been planning on doing with us?" asked Misty, getting fed up with the waiting. She, Ash, Brock, May and even Pikachu had been taken out of the cage – however, William had fastened ankle weights – those heavy ankle things that prisoners wear – around each individual's ankle, preventing escape.

"Yeah, and could you loosen the grip on this thing?" Ash asked. He attempted to lift his foot with the ankle brace before yelping in pain and setting it back down. "It hurts a lot, and it's hard to walk in!"

Pikachu sweatdropped, his own ankle weight probably weighing more than himself alone. "Bigga bi? Peekachu. (_You're_ complaining? I can't even move at all!)."

"SILENCE, ALL OF YOU!" William retorted, almost sending the kids's skins flying right off of them in pure terror and surprise due to his voice's volume. Once everyone was quiet (including Ash, who tried his best to hold in a whimper) William smiled satisfactorily. "That's better," he said softly, his voice the only thing to be heard from miles away in the evil fortress. He began to pace around in front of the four children and the mouse as he explained his plan.

"Now," he began, clearing his throat. "Like I said before, I had been talking it over with my Mistress and she thinks it is a good idea that we find...a usefulness for you, per say. Since the five of you are visiting, she finds it appropriate that you handle the things that she's never had the time or energy to do while she's been working on her evil plan for world domination."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we can't help you out with your plan." Brock declared bravely. "My friends and I have never worked for anything evil because we're the good guys. Helping out with world domination would ruin our reputations forever."

William stopped walking. "Pffft..." he said, waving his hand. "Of **course** you guys won't be helping out with our evil work. You'd be way too bad at it. I think having the five of you on our side is only going to ruin our own reputations worse." He shook his head. "No, no, no. You guys will be taking care of something else. Something a lot more up your alley." Before he could go on any further with what he was saying, he pulled out a list from behind his back.

"Alright...allow me to give you your assignments." William commenced. He pointed a finger toward Ash. "You." he said. "The little idiot in the hat and jacket."

Ash looked around. "Who, me?"

William sweatdropped. "Yeeeess....you. See any other idiots around matching that description?" Indeed, at that very moment in time, there was baltoy with a hat and a jacket outside the window spinning around and around like the idiot it was...but everyone ignored it, mostly because they didn't even notice it was there.

"Ooooh! I have been chosen...but when does that come as a surprise?" Ash laughed. "I am, after all, the Chosen One!"

"Save your breath, hot stuff..." Misty muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, yeah, you've been chosen. Woop de freaking doo." William replied, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, yes, you and...that girl over there..." He pointed at May, who immediately snapped out of her thoughts upon hearing her name. "You two cute little kiddies will start...with the dishes."

Exclamation points went over each and every head after the job had been described. Misty looked like she wanted to bang something to death with a mallet or rip a piece of raw steak apart with her teeth. "Wait...you want us to do _chores_?!" she repeated, mostly out of shock.

William shrugged. "Well, like I said, we've never had time to do that kind of thing. All these chores really need some work...like the dishes for example. They've been piling up for weeks and we're starting to run out of clean ones. We would've had to use paper plates soon, only you guys will be taking care of it so there will of course, be no need to bother."

"But...but...I'm a Pokemon Master!" Ash quipped. "I battle pokemon, not sauce stains! At home, Mom would always get angry when I did the dishes because I somehow always did it wrong!"

"Ash, that's probably just because you used the toilet cleaner instead of the dishwasher detergent." Brock reminded the hysterical boy. "You've done it before countless times...you just need to look at the labeling of products more carefully, and you'll be fine."

William sweatdropped and turned his gaze on May. "Watch that kid closely, alright? No funny business."

May could do nothing more than merely nod to ensure him she would obey orders.

William went back to his list. "OK, and then the girl with orange hair and the guy without eyes..." he ordered, looking in the direction of Brock and Misty. "Your first job will be the most important of them all. I'm leaving you responsible of cleaning the bathrooms."

Misty and Brock's jaws dropped all the way down to the floor. "We're responsible...of WHAT?!"

"Oh, you know..." William explained further. "Scrub the toilets, scrub the sinks, scrub the showers – that kind of thing. I want everywhere to be spic and span. Squeaky clean. Pure white. And use some Febreze to eliminate the foul odors. You got that?!"

Misty and Brock groaned, helpless in the decision of their destiny.

"Pi! Peeka pi, peeka peeka! (Hey, where exactly does that leave_ me_?!)" Pikachu asked, flapping his arms in the air to get the nerdy man's attention.

"Oh...of course I can't forget your adorable pokemon." William chuckled. He stared down at Pikachu. "Your job, little mouse, is nothing other than just standing here and being a good little boy." He bent down to pat Pikachu on his head. The little rodent growled, and started up a thunderbolt attack.

"Peeka...CHUUUUUUUUU!"

Instead of zapping William like he intended, Pikachu had rather felt the power of the shock hit back at himself and he cried in pain. William smirked.

"Pikachuuuuuu!" Ash wailed as he extended a hand out, the sight of his hurt Pikachu too much to bear.

"Oh please, do not worry about your electric attacks, young mouse." William falsely assured the yellow creature. "They have not been taken away from you. You have just been equipped with a handy shock collar, that's all. If you try to shock me or anybody at all, it will shock you back so you will think twice about trying the same thing again."

"Pi...pika! Bigga bigga! Chu! (No! No! It's not true! It can't be!)" the pokemon screamed, trying to fire another streak of thunder at the man he deemed cruel and unworthy of his presence. Like William said before, the attack merely injured Pikachu in the process, making him weaker.

"Haha. Sucks to be you." William snickered. "Maybe that'll teach you a lesson not to mess with me."

"Oh no...what'll we do?" Ash gasped, at a loss. "We're being forced to do chores and Pikachu is getting hurt really badly!" He stuck out his lower lip at the enemy as his brown eyes welled up with tears. "I don't like you anymore, Wil! You're a meanie!"

William just continued smirking. "Well, yelling and crying at me isn't going to help anything. You four get to work..." He looked down at Pikachu, who was now panting tiredly as it tried to break free. "And I'll take good care of the mouse."

So...Misty and Brock went one way as May and Ash went the other. The pokeshippers reading this fic wailed in dismay at what Wolfy had done while the gymshippers and advanceshippers rejoiced at their chance of hopefully seeing passionate romance or something silly like that. Contestshippers eagerly wished that Drew would turn back to the fortress and meet up with May. Rocketshippers waited in glee, anticipating TR's next appearance because they hadn't been separated and that led to a bigger chance. The rare amounts of cookieshippers clapped their hands in joy because Harley was coming and that meant he would probably get to May before Drew could, which saddened the contestshippers even more. Wolfy meanwhile, laughed evilly at the thoughts and drank more chocolate milk.

Speaking of evil...

...

"So...my beloved MAX2823..." the woman's voice came to the robot's metallic ears once more.

The 8-year-old machine turned to face the figure, still covered in the shadows of the dark room. "Yes, my creator?"

"Tell me...how is your equipment working? How much of it needs to get upgraded?" A couple hours ago, she had asked the robot to test out his skills to see if he could still perfect them even though he had lost his memory. After the reboot, she needed to make sure everything from his chainsaws to wheels were up and working correctly.

Max just shrugged. "Most of it is working fine for me," he admitted. "Although I can't smell anything very well...didn't you say you gave me a new nose or something?"

"Oh, yes...you are indeed correct," his master replied. "I have given you a new nose, but I'm pretty sure William has configured it to work just like your old one. What seems to be the problem with it? Can you not smell out of it at all? And what about the booger bombs, is that feature not working either?"

Max sniffed the air, then shook his head. "Nope. None of it's working." he confirmed.

"Very well." said his creator. "I will take it to be fixed straightaway." She grabbed a screwdriver and started twisting it into the nail that kept the robot's nose in place. "So, while I'm at it, is there anything else that needs fixing?"

"No...I don't think so."

Max's nose then plopped right off and into the safety (wait, isn't that an oxymoron?) of the woman's palm. "Thank you, Max, my dear." she told the robot with a smile. "This nose of yours seems like an easy fix, so it should take no time at all to get it back to normal. I'll be back here in about fifteen minutes, maybe a little longer. You stay here and be good for me, alright?"

Max nodded. "OK." he answered, as the shadowy woman went out the door and slammed it shut. Once it was closed, Max curiously walked up. He wondered if he could follow her to figure out more about who she was and maybe even...more of who _he _was. Unfortunately, the door had been locked as she exited, so the doorknob stuck when Max tried to open it. He sighed, walking back in defeat.

"Well, I gueth I'm here awl by mythelf." he mumbled quietly, finding it hard to speak correctly without a nose. He glanced around the room. It was hard to tell where he was or find any clues either – the room in which he stood was almost completely dark, quiet and empty.

Finding a place on the cold, hard ground to sit, Max rested his chin in his hand as his mind swept up in a fury of questions he could not answer. One question of course, stood out most of all, and it forced Max to think as hard as he felt he ever could. Even a robot as smart and intelligent as him (or so he heard) couldn't seem to figure out the one thing that had been plaguing him...the one thing that he had to know to make all the difference...the one thing that could possibly change his life forever...

Who was he?

...

_You guys thought this story was done for but...oh no! It is back! It has surfaced from the rubble! How could I be so cruel as to not finish a story that I started, especially a story as intense and nail-biting as this one? I know this story might be scary to some of you (especially at the part where Harley and Drew were so poorly written)...but do not be afraid, my humble citizens. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to characterise these two in terms of humor. Yes...that's right...Drew isn't gone from the story forever. He'll most likely be returning...mostly because I like getting the contestshippers' hopes up, just like how I enjoyed making the pokeshippers suffer from that separation of Ash and Misty. Yeah, I know I'm sinister and cruel. But I can't help it. Anyway...stay tuned for the next chapter, it will hopefully come sooner than the ones before it. (BTW...any cookies besides the kind Harley makes will be accepted by Wolfy and used to help get this story going again, so keep that in mind!) :D_


End file.
